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PROBABLY 
DID pop 


HOW EVAN DO 


SURVIVED EVERYTHING 


THIS NATION'S NEW 
SAVING GRACE 


UNCOVERED 


1 EIR BRITISH 
INVASION! 


R.I.P. 


| | WHATEVER 
| HAPPENED TO 





[| 
I dim nn Ah ES 
he irf ant] & аы ь 





| | ж " f 
[en ehm abel Ka 
hg f # 


THE LEMONHEADS 





MODERN STUDIES 


FIRE RECORDS LP / CD 
Flying high above their psych-folk roots, it’s an epic 
journey that’s exquisitely delivered, transcending 
categories, nodding to Brubeck, Low, Talk Talk, Jim 
O'Rourke & Pentangle, making music that crosses over 
in these modern times. **** Mojo **** Uncut 


FIRE RECORDS 21Р / 260 
Lemonheads’ seminal album, lovingly reissued on ltd ed 
deluxe bookback double LP & CD. Featuring essential & 
unreleased extras: b-sides, demos, covers & KCRW 1992 

session track with unseen photos & new liner notes. 





SUPERCHUNK ERIC CHENAUX 
MERGE RECORDS LP / CD CONSTELLATION 180g LP / CD 


New album featuring special guests Sharon Van Etten, The acclaimed avant-balladeer returns with his most 
Teenage Fanclub, Mike Mills, Tracyanne Campbell & immaculate & impeccably recorded album, pure tenor 
тоге! croon gliding through crisp reverberant ether, frazzled 
semi-improv guitar careening dizzily. “А musician like 
no other.” (TinyMixTapes) 





LIA ICES 


VARIOUS ARTISTS 


NATURAL RECORDS LP / CD 
A stunning collection of psychedelic-tinged Americana. 
Written on Moon Mountain in Sonoma, California on 
the precipice of motherhood. "Throughout Family 
Album, Ices is inspired, renewed, and at peace with the 
natural world. 


SKEP WAX RECORDS LP / CD 
A compilation of brilliant new songs - and an amazing 
reunion. All fourteen tracks are by bands and 
songwriters who were on Sarah Records. Still pure, still 
radical, still in love. 





“STAR PARTY 


DUQUETTE JOHNSTON 


SINGLE LOCK RECORDS LP / CD 
On his album, “The Social Animals”, Duquette Johnston 
partnered with producer John Agnello and an all-star 
cast of players including Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley to 
create his boldest and most powerful music to date. 


TOUGH LOVE LP 
Star Party’s debut album seamlessly meshes together 
noise, melody & harmony. Soft & clearly American 
vocals float over waves of feedback & drum machine 
racket like a delicate mist sitting just above a mountain 
lake. 


AN AMALGAMATION OF RECORD 


DUBLIN - SPINDIZZY / KILKENNY - ROLLER COASTER RECORDS 
/ CARDIFF - SPILLERS / NEWPORT - DIVERSE / SWANSEA - DERRICKS 


SHOPS AND 


BELFAST - STRANGE VICTORY RECORDS 





LABELS 





PICTISH TRAIL 
FIRE RECORDS LP / CD 
The psych-pop wonder delivers a strange, unpredictable 
& sardonic record. Inspired by all from Fever Ray to 
The Flaming Lips, Liars, Mercury Rev & Beck. "A real 


hero of the Scottish underground scene" Huw Stephens, 
BBC 6 Music. 


ADOLE 


Бењ тАы Жа: {еы ры | 








BOGDAN RACZYNSKI 


PLANET MU 2LP 
Bogdan Raczynski's first album of new music in 15 
years. Marking a change from the high-octane jungle 
tekno braindance for which he is most commonly 
known, here we find the Polish American musician in a 
more melodic & zen-like place of peace. 





KEE AVIL 


CONSTELLATION 180¢ LP / CD 
Dark deconstructed electroacoustic postpunk using 
chiselled minimalist guitar, twitchy sinuous electronics 
& finely wrought lyricism/vocals. The lovechild of Scott 
Walker & PJ Harvey, or Grouper produced by Matmos. 
A stunning debut. 


NOON GARDEN 


NOON GARDEN 


THE LIQUID LABEL LP / CD 
The debut album from Charles Prest (Flamingods). An 
exotic psych-pop odyssey featuring the singles Desiree, 
Villa & Decca Divine. “I absolutely love this...brilliant 
experimental psychedelia.” Lauren Laverne. 


EENDRA MORRIS 
mm LT 





KENDRA MORRIS 


KARMA CHIEF RECORDS LP / CD 
10 years since her first LP, Kendra Morris’ Nine Lives 
encapsulates moments from what could be nine 
lifetimes, conjuring imagery evocative of road trips to 
weird and wonderful places. 


DEDICATED ТО 


BRINGING YOU NEW 


DUNDEE - ASSAI / EDINBURGH - ASSAI / GLASGOW - LOVE MUSIC / GLASGOW - MONORAIL 
BARROW-IN-FURNESS - TNT RECORDS / LIVERPOOL - 81 RENSHAW LTD / LIVERPOOL - PROBE / MANCHESTER - PICCADILLY RECORDS / PRESTON - ACTION RECORDS 


SHADOW UNIVERSE 


MONOTREME LP / CD 
Slovenian instrumental duo create breathtaking cin- 
ematic soundscapes incorporating post-rock, neoclas- 
sical, ambient & post-metal elements, with cascading 
piano, soaring strings/synths & towering guitars. RIYL 
Mogwai, God is an Astronaut, Caspian. 








PARTNER LOOK 


TROUBLE IN MIND RECORDS LP / CD 
Debut from this Melbourne quartet of friends (and yes, 
partners) is a twelve-track indie charmer of scrappy, 
sophisticated ruminations on self, home, life unfolding, 
and surrealism of the smaller things. 





HOLODRUM 


GRINGO RECORDS LP 
Debut album of interlocking grooves and hot-headed 
repeato-rock-via-CBGBs dopamine hits from new 
disco-infused synth-pop group, featuring members of 
Hookworms, Virginia Wing, Cowtown and Yard Act. 


MUSIC 


ABERYSTWYTH - ANDY'S RECORDS 


BINGLEY - FIVE 
RISE RECORDS / HARROGATE - P & C MUSIC / HUDDERSFIELD - VINYL TAP / LEEDS - CRASH / LEEDS - JUMBO RECORDS / NEWCASTLE - J G WINDOWS / NEWCASTLE - BEATDOWN / NEWCASTLE - REFLEX / SCARBOROUGH - RECORD REVIVALS / SHEFFIELD - BEAR TREE / SHEFFIELD - RE- 


CORD COLLECTOR / SHEFFIELD - SPINNING DISCS / STILLINGFLEET - BENWAY RECORDS / STOCKTON ON TEES - SOUND IT OUT / WAKEFIELD - WAH WAH RECORDS 


BEDFORD - SLIDE RECORDS / CAMBRIDGE - LOST IN VINYL / CAMBRIDGE - RELEVANT / COVENTRY - JUST 


DROPPED IN / LEAMINGTON SPA - HEAD / LEAMINGTON SPA - SEISMIC RECORDS / LEIGHTON BUZZARD - BLACK CIRCLE RECORDS / LETCHWORTH - DAVID'S MUSIC / LOUTH - OFF THE BEATEN TRACK / NOTTINGHAM - ROUGH TRADE / OXFORD - TRUCK STORE / STOKE ON TRENT 
- MUSIC MANIA / WITNEY - RAPTURE BEXHILL ON SEA - MUSIC'S NOT DEAD / BLANDFORD FORUM - REVOLUTION ROCKS / BRIGHTON - RESIDENT / BURY ST.EDMUNDS - VINYL HUNTER / EASTBOURNE - PEBBLE / GODALMING - RECORD CORNER / LEIGH-ON-SEA - FIVES / 


LONDON - BANQUET GRAVITY / LONDON - CASBAH / LONDON - FLASHBACK / LONDON - ROUGH TRADE EAST / LONDON - ROUGH TRADE TALBOT RD / LONDON - SISTER RAY / LUTON - VINYL REVELATIONS / MARGATE / ELSEWHERE / ROMSEY - HUNDRED / SOUTHSEA - PIE & VINYL / 
SOUTHEND ON SEA - SOUTH RECORDS / ST ALBANS - EMPIRE RECORDS / WATFORD - PARADE VIBES / WIMBORNE - SQUARE RECORDS / WHITSTABLE - GATEFIELD SOUNDS / WINCHESTER - ELEPHANT RECORDS BRISTOL - RADIO ON / BRISTOL - ROUGH TRADE / CHEL- 
TENHAM - BADLANDS / FALMOUTH - JAM / FROME - RAVES FROM THE GRAVE / MARLBOROUGH - SOUND KNOWLEDGE / TOTNES - DRIFT BLEEP.COM / BOOMKAT.COM / NORMANRECORDS.COM / RECORDSTORE.CO.UK / VENUSVINYL.COM 


17 HEATHMAN'S ROAD, LONDON SW6 4T) - CARGORECORDS.CO.UK - INFO@CARGORECORDS.CO.UK 





CONTENTS 


LONDON * MEMPHIS * ENID, OK 








EVAN DANDO 


The Lemonheads' dashing 
tunesmith reveals how life seems 
to keep evading his control: “I just 
recently gotoff heroin again. Man, 
that was a bad one.” 


RONNIE SPECTOR 


A singer like no other. A story to 
make your hair curl. Tribute is paid 
to The Ronettes' sadly departed 
siren by Brian Wilson, Steven Van 
Zandt and more. 


YARD ACT How DIY beats 


and worm's-eye street poetry lifted 
Leeds indie hopefuls out of a rut and 
intothe Next Big Thing bracket: 


J n 


"We're thinking ‘Beastie Boys’. 


KAREN DALTON 


Nearly 30 years after her death, Karen 
Dalton’s unique and magical music is 
finally being recognised. Friends and 
peers remember “a person who said, 
‘Take it or leave it.” 


TEARS FOR FEARS 


Synths'n'psychiatry to world 
domination: how Songs From The 
Big Chair cracked America and 
did their heads in. “We felt this 
incredible, intoxicating whoosh.” 


NEUTRAL MILK 
HOTE L Chaotic shows, 


singing saws, beautiful records, 
fervid fan love... Inside the '90s' 
most mysterious band, and their 
singer’s inexplicable retirement. 


LA PU NK The Damned, The 


Cramps and more: killer shots of the 
LA punk scene, 1977-1980, from a 
new book by Slash magazine house 
photographer, Melanie Nissen. 


GEORGE 
HARRI SON Get Back 


reminded us of his frustrations, 

and also his genius. Cue: his creative 
journey, his 30 Greatest Songs, 

and anever-printed Paul McCartney 
interview about his quiet friend: 
“He was avery loyal guy.” 


Getty 


MOJO 3$ 





Mighty like a rose: 
Rokia Koné teams up ‘= 
with Jacknife Lee, p24. Jape 





ALL BACK TO MY PLACE 


Cate Le Bon, Steve Hackett and Ryley Walker 
bring the soundtrack to all their minds. 


REAL СОМЕ Dean Taylor, Don 


Wilson, Elza Soares, Burke Shelley, Michael Lang 
and many others, goodnight and farewell. 


ASK M OJ О Who crossed rock's 


credibility fence? 


HELLO GOODBYE First he was 


blown away by the alien sounds, but then the 
cold robotics became too much. Wolfgang Flur 
remembers the glory of Kraftwerk. 


MEAT LOAF rne larger-than-life 


rock'n'roller born Marvin Lee Aday is gone. 
MOJO remembers the man, his musicand the 
contradictions that drove him. 


BELLE AND SEBASTIAN 
We call the B&S НО hotline to talk about their 
new LP, who their “least Smithsy” members аге, 
and what Adele’s got to do with it. 


JOHNNY AND EDGAR 
WINTER Johnny left usin 2014, but 


now his brother Edgar is joined by some very 

heavy friends for a musical tribute taking in 
every aspect of their shared musical life. 

In the pink: 


Lady Wray, KEN BOOTHE Reggae’s Everything 
ADU | Own hitmaker is back! Read his Confidential 
thoughts on the made men of Jamaican music 
and why you need to get off that phone. 


JOH N OT WAY не; the off-the- 


leash rocker who's taken ‘if at first you don't 
succeed’ and ‘ridicule is nothing to be scared of’ 
to heroic lengths. On the verge of his 5,000th 
gig, he reflects ona life spent being Really Free. 





Moore the merrier: 
Aldous Harding, 
Lead Album, p78. 





MOJO FILTER 
78 NEW ALBUMS лао, Harding 


adopts myriad personae, plus Johnny Marr, 
King Hannah, Park Jiha and Destroyer. 


9? REISSUES LostSon House found, 


plus Ornette Coleman and Lemonheads. 


102 BOOKS Beautiful Bill Frisell biog, plus 


Heavy Metal, Fat White Family and Frank Zappa. 


104 SCREEN Are you sitting comfortably? 


Good, here’s seven hours of Blu-Ray Beatles. 










THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE... 


Adam Clair ALL Melanie Nissen = 
Adam is the author of Endless id e Between 1977 and 1980, Melanie ў 

Endless: А Lo-Fi History Of The |, was photographer for Los 
Elephant 6 Mystery, from which Angeles’ ground-breaking music 
he adapts the strange story of = magazine Slash, before takingher ©, 
the band Neutral Milk Hotel on =- creative skills to the record labels, | 
page 52. He writes about music -art directing sleeves for Lenny 
and technology for a number of -. Kravitz, Janet Jackson, Iggy Pop, 
publications, most of which still _ Pil and many more. A portfolio of 
ES exist, and lives in Philadelphia her shots from LA's nascent punk 
== with his cat. scene begins on page 58. 


John Bungey 


| John has written for MOJO since 
1994 in between his regular gig 
at The Times. This month he talks 
to 75-year-old Edgar Winter 
about the legacy of his brother, 
pioneering guitar hero Johnny. 
Musicwriting has taken John to 
Mali with Salif Keita, New Orleans 
with Dr. John, and Bermondsey 

* with Amy Winehouse. 





Natalie Piserchio, Kenny MacPherson, Vince Pastiche 





4 MOJO 


Out 25.02.2022 
On tour with Mitski in Spring 2022 












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MOJO PRESENTS 


HANDLE WITH CARE 


NEW MUSIC 2022 





TWORKING 
MEN'S CLUB 
WIDOW 


Syd Minsky-Sargeant and co 
emerged in 2020, melding 
vituperative songcraft with 
pulsating dancefloor electronica in 
a way few have managed since the 
heyday of New Order. Widow is а 
sneak preview of the new Working 
Men’s Club music coming in 2022. 


by Just Isn't Music. Produced and mixed by Ross 
Orton at McCall Sound, Sheffield. Engineered by 


exclusive license to [PIAS]. 


9 MARGO CILKER 
FLOOD PLAIN 

А wandering troubadour from 
eastern Oregon, Margo Cilker’s 
debut album, Pohorylle, finds her 
traversing the Basque country as 
well as the States, recording her 
journeys - and those of others - 
with a tone and craft that sits 
impressively at the midpoint 


Williams. “Don’t you forget, you 
always come home...” 


Control. @& ©2021 Loose Music under exclusive 
license from Margo Cilker. From Pohorylle 
(Loose/Fluff & Gravy); www.loosemusic.com 


Vishesh Sharma, Karen Paulina Biswell, Chris Almeida, lan Laidlaw, Tom Whitson, Phoebe Fox, Joshua Black Wilkins, Desdemona Burgin, Matt Correia 


6 MOJO 






Written by Sydney Minsky-Sargeant. Published 


Ross Orton. ®& ©2022 Heavenly Recordings under 


between Gillian Welch and Lucinda 


Written by Margo Cilker. Published by Copyright | 


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v. p T 


2 ROKIA KONE & 
JACKNIFE LEE 
KURUNBA 

From Mali, Rokia Koné has 
graduated out of the Amazones 
d'Afrique pan-African supergroup 
to a striking solo career, with digital 
assistance from producer Jacknife 
Lee (R.E.M., U2). Koné is interviewed 
on page 24. 





Written by Rokia Koné / Garrett ‘Jacknife’ Lee. 


Published by 3D Family Publishing & France 
Media Monde — RFI Talent / Besme administered 
by Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. ®&©2022 

Real World Records Ltd. From Bamanan (Real 
World Records). 





BRIGHT STAR 

Anais Mitchell has taken some 
notable detours since her last solo 
album in 2012: a folk covers set as 
one-third of Bonny Light Horseman; 
the small matter of a Tony-winning 
Broadway musical, Hadestown. 
Now, though, the Vermont singer- 
songwriter has re-engaged with 
her most intimate, personal 
instincts: “I can’t wait until | am 


60 and don’t have any fucks left.” 


Written by Mitchell. Published by Treleven 
Music (ASCAP) adm. Candid Music Publishing. 
®&©Anais Mitchell under exclusive license 
to BMG Rights Management (US) LLC. From 
Anais Mitchell. 






10 ANAÏS MITCHELL 





3 ERIN RAE 
MODERN WOMAN 

As she explained in MOJO 340, 

Erin Rae’s politically engaged and 
socially progressive mindset never 
overburdens her peppy take on 
Americana. “It’s important to bring 
lightness to the stage,” she says 

— hence this easy-going skewering 
of old ideas of femininity. From her 
third album, Lighten Up. 


Written by Erin McKaskle.PublishedbyGood — 


Memory (SESAC) administered by Confidently 
Canadian Publishing. ®&©2022 Good Memory. 
Marketed & distributed by Thirty Tigers/ 

The Orchard. From Lighten Up (Good Memory 
(marketed & distributed by Thirty Tigers)). 


11 CAROLINE 
IWR 


London collective caroline, with a 
small ‘c’, make a subtle noise for 

a big, eight-piece band: crafted 
post-rock hymnals, reminiscent of 
classically-attuned '905 bands like 
Rachel’s, where fragile strings and 
unsteady chorales accrue power 
by stealth. Rousing, on the quiet. 


Written by Casper Hughes, Mike 0’ Malley, Jasper 


Llewellyn, Oliver Hamilton, Magdalena McLean, 
Freddy Wordsworth, Hugh Aynsley, Alex 
McKenzie. 2021 Rough Trade Records Limited. 
Published by Copyright Control ISRC No GB- 
CVZ-21-00186. From caroline [RT0150] Licensed 
courtesy of Rough Trade Records Limited by 
arrangement with Beggars Group Media 
Limited; www.roughtraderecords.com 








Deo audiam 
ABILLY STRINGS 
HEARTBEAT 
OF AMERICA 


Another country outlier, Billy 
‘Strings’ Apostol is a fleet-fingered 
guitar virtuoso who can juggle 
affiliations with rappers and the 
Grateful Dead while honouring 
bluegrass tradition. “I’m not a 
miner’s son,” he told MOJO 339. 
“I'll sing about meth, not mining.” 


Sony Tree Publishing / Songs of Tuckaway Music / 
Apostol Publishing (BMI) Aaron Allen: JOY ZONE 
(ASCAP)/Use Your Words Music (BMI) ©2021 
Billy Strings LLC Under Exclusive License to 
Rounder Records. From Renewal; WWW. 
billystrings.com 


7 > 


12 ALABASTER 
DEPLUME 
MRS CALAMARI 


“The reason to make Gold is to 

give people courage and love,” 
Alabaster DePlume tells us on page 
22, and this highlight illustrates 

the eccentric multi-tasker's practice 
of musical loving kindness. His 
instrumental rather than lyrical side 
takes precedence on Mrs Calamari, 
his airy sax-playing like an ambient 
response to vintage Ethiopian jazz. 


Written by Angus Fairbairn. Published by 
Domino Publishing Со. ®&©2021 International 
Anthem Recording Со. From GOLD (Lost Map / 
International Anthem); www.lostmap.com / 
www.intlanthem.com 


T'S BEEN QUITE A WHILE SINCE WE PUT TOGETHER A GRAB- 
bag CD of eclectic new music to accompany our magazine – 


30 issues, in fact, since the MOJO Rising compilation of October 


2019. That disc introduced Fontaines D.C., Yola, Black Midi, 
Mdou Moctar, Weyes Blood, Amyl And The Sniffers and many 


others who have since become critical players in the MOJO universe. 


Two-and-a-half years on, the time seems right to do it again. 


We're proud, then, to unveil Handle With Care and our MOJO Class 


Of 2022 - the rabble-rousers, storytellers, classical artisans and 
radical innovators destined to soundtrack this eventful year. 
Here you'll find heartland folk and electro epiphany; searing 
post-punk and transcendental jazz; a song from the Sahara, 
sung in Welsh; and a prevailing spirit, exemplified by Los 
Bitchos, of pan-global “zing-zang”. An index of forward-thinking 
possibilities, and of the creative diversity of the new music- 
makers we try and represent in each issue of MOJO. The best 
thing that you've ever found? Handle it with care... 





5 YARD ACT 
DARK DAYS 


A punchy, crowd-pleasing hybrid 
of The Fall, Arctic Monkeys and 
Sleaford Mods, Leeds quartet 

Yard Act have spent the pandemic 
perfecting their 21st century brand 
of post-punk. As they reveal on 
page 38, however, there’s more to 
them than righteous indignation; 

a nuance to singer James Smith 


beyond the “snarky finger-pointer”. 


Written by Smith / Shipstone/ Needham / 
Townend. Published by Copyright Control / 
Domino Music Publishing. (22602021 details Zen 
F.C. From Dark Days EP; www.yardactors.com 





13 AROOJ AFTAB 
AEY NA BALAM 


Not strictly a new track - Aey 

Na Balam actually comes from 
Arooj Aftab’s debut, Bird Under 
Water - but one definitely worth 
discovering, given the Brooklyn- 
based Pakistani's upward 
trajectory: she was a welcome 
surprise nominee in this year’s 
Grammy Awards. A gorgeous mix 
of traditional Pakistani music, folk, 
jazz and electronica, topped with 
a voice akin to Elizabeth Fraser. 


Written by Arooj Aftab and Bhrigu Sahni (Arooj 


Aftab, Jorn Bielfeldt, Mario Carillo, Bhrigu Sahni, 
Magda Giannikou, Rakae Jamil) From Bird Under 
Water. ©&©Arooj Aftab 2014. 





he \ \ 


6 CURTIS HARDING 
| WON'T LET YOU DOWN 


“Soulis a concept,” said Аїапќа’ѕ 
Harding in MOJO 339. “You don’t 
have to be a musician. It's about 

the life experiences you have.” 
Nevertheless, this third LP showcases 
a musician with old-school soul 
chops, and an understanding of 

how both the political and musical 
vibes of the early '70s are worth 
revisiting in 2022. 


Written by Curtis Harding. Published by Curtis 

Harding (Figure 8 Publishing (BMI)) ®&©2021 

Curtis Harding, under exclusive license to Anti. 
From /f Words Were Flowers (Anti). 





14 GRACE 
CUMMINGS 

STORM QUEEN 

The latest nascent star to emerge 
out of the Australian indie scene, 
Grace Cummings is an actor and 
associate of the King Gizzard crowd. 
Her music, though, is strikingly 
different: unstinting noir blues, 
like a jazz-adjacent Bad Seeds, 
delivered in a voice with similar 
lived-in gravitas to that of the 
mature Marianne Faithfull. Listen 
out for a wild sax solo, too. 


Written by Grace Cummings. Self-published. 
@@©2021 ATO Records. From Storm Queen; 
https://m.facebook.com/gracecummingsmusic/ 


MOJO PRESENTS 


HANDLE WITH CARE 


NEW MUSIC 2022 





7 IMARHAN 

ADAR NEWLAN 

(FEAT. GRUFF RHYS) 
Western musicians have guested 
discreetly on recent LPs by Saharan 
rock dons Tinariwen, but here their 
junior brothers Imarhan duet with 
Gruff Rhys for a Tuareg/Welsh- 
language hybrid that’s as harmo- 
nious and effective as it is unlikely. 


Written by lyad Moussa Ben Abderahmane, 
Abdelkader Ourzig, Tahar Khaldi, Hicham 
Bouhasse, Haiballah Akhamouk, Gruff Rhys. 
Published by Inear publishing. Administered by 
Warp Publishing. ®&©City Slang 2021. From 
Aboogi (City Slang); imarhan.com 





15 BINKER 
AND MOSES 
ACCELEROMETER 
OVERDOSE 


And talking of wild saxophones, 
Binker Golding may be the London 
jazz revival’s secret superstar: less 
lauded than Shabaka Hutchings 
and Nubya Garcia, but no less 

fierce and fluid in his playing. 

Here he reunites with drum maestro 
Moses Boyd for an incantatory new 
workout, with new third wheel 

Max Luthert on synths and loops. 











Written by Binker Golding, Moses Boyd, Max 

Luthert. Published by Gearbox Records 2021. 
From Feeding The Machine (Gearbox Records); 
www.binkerandmoses.com 








8 LOS BITCHOS 
PISTA (FRESH START) 
More rampant hybrids, courtesy of 
the London-based Los Bitchos - an 
Australian/Swedish/Uruguayan/UK 
quartet who mix further Turkish 
and Peruvian influences into their 
“zing-zang” twang. It all coheres 
brilliantly, and in unexpected 
ways: Pista sounds roughly like the 
Modern Lovers’ Egyptian Reggae 
re-imagined by Khruangbin. 


Written by Serra Petale, Alex Kapranos. Published 
by Copyright Control. ®&OCity Slang 2021. 

From Let The Festivities Begin! (City Slang); 
losbitchos.com 


optimist. 
I'm trying 
to find 


enlightenment.” 


B the truth about 
2022's angry 
young men. 


INTERVIEW 
STARTS 








DOG TRUMPET 


Artist/musician brothers Peter 0 Doherty and Reg Mombassa have released 7 remarkable albums 
as Dog Trumpet over the last 30 years. An eclectic meld of folk, blues, country and psychedelia, 
poetic lyrics focus on the intimate absurdities of human existence. Founding members of iconic 
Australian band Mental as Anything, the brothers share an intuitive melodic connection that 
infuses their music with a classic timelessness. 








Rat wire‏ ست 


All seven albums available 
on 180g coloured vinyl 
and remastered for digital release 





SUITCASE DOG TRUMPET ANTISOCIAL TENDENCIES 





Da d dicated spirits Гангын Available to order now 
Р РА DENON 
- а, \ MUSIC GROUP 
\ For more information, visit 
) a dX | www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk 

RIVER OF FLOWERS @ RE AT SOUTH ROAD 
RIVER OF FLOWERS MEDICATED SPIRITS GREAT SOUTH ROAD www.dogtrumpet.net 





б) 
Trading 


Pundan es 
AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT VENUE 






CHINA CRISIS —- JOHN COGHLAN'S QUO TOYAH WILLCOX 
Friday 4" March Saturday 5" March Friday 25" March 


IA LAKE А PALMEN LIFES gy, 





| LIFESIGNS | CARL PALMER'S ELP FOCUS 
Thursday 14^ April LEGACY Friday 16" June | JAN AKKERMAN 
Sunday 24^ April Saturday 17" June Friday 11", Saturday 12" & Sunday 13" March 2022 








Steve Hackett 


What music are you currently 
grooving to? 

Dare's Beneath The Shining Water, 
from 2004. l've been very impressed 
with that level of romantic, spiritual 
writing. Also Sam Smith, particular- 
ly Writing's On The Wall, the James 
Bond track. Both very emotional 
things. Joe Bonamassa too. 


What, if push comes to shove, is 
your all-time favourite album? 


The Beatles' Revolver. As a 16-year- 
old, it seemed as if the music had 
grown up. The lyrics were more 
evolved, other instruments were 
creeping in, it was sonically very, 
very interesting. Another all-time 
favourite is Highway 61 Revisited. 





What music are you currently 
grooving to? 

Music For Saxofone & Bass Guitar — 

Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes. Also 
Charlotte Adigéry, Standing On The 
Corner, and I’m currently having my 
first love affair with Tears For Fears. 


What, if push comes to shove, is 


What was the first record you | 
ever bought? And where did 

you buy it? 

It was The Shadows’ Man Of 
Mystery from a small record shop in 
Victoria. Heavy stuff for a nine-year- 
old. | still think it's a great melody, 
very kind of film noir. At the time 
Woolworths did cheaper copies 

of what was in the chart on the 
Embassy label, but in this case, 

| spent several weeks' pocket 
money getting the real thing. 


Which musician, other than your- 
self, have you ever wanted to be? 


Hearing Brian Jones on | Wanna Be 
Your Man was the first time | really 
heard a guitar solo that seemed to 
really rip. There were great guitar 
solos from both Keith and Brian, so 
at that time, | probably wanted to be 
at least one Rolling Stone. But I’m 
very happy to be me. 


your all-time favourite album? 


Faust IV by a country mile. | can 
remember exactly where | was and 
how | felt when | first heard it. Those 
feelings have only blossomed over 
the years and it’s a record | will always 
reference, whether it's a feel or a 
specific sound I’m chasing. The real 
take away for me is that the abandon- 
ment employed is inspired rather 
than calculated. It's a visceral explora- 
tion of sound and songwriting. 


What was the first record you ever 
bought? And where did you buy it? 
| saved up to buy New Kids On The 
Block, Step By Step. My dad convinced 
me to buy it on vinyl so he could rip a 


Ryley Walker 


What music are you currently 
grooving to? 

| enjoy Tomberlin. Best tunes l've 
heard in a minute. | envy the 
restraint she has. Super psychedelic. 
Also really enjoyed Winter 
Hallucinations by my friend Sam 
Goldberg. He's a Cleveland native 
who was and is a big part of the 
Midwest synth-and-noise scene 
going back to the mid-noughties. 


What, if push comes to shove, is 
your all-time favourite album? 


| always say Physical Graffiti. Just 
makes sense. It's the best, right? 


What was the first record you 
ever bought? And where did 
you buy it? 


Cate Le Bon 


tape from it for the car, except he 
would never let me play it. We drove 
to Woolworths in Carmarthen - it 
came with a very inappropriate 
poster for a nine-year-old. 


Which musician, other than your- 
self, have you ever wanted to be? 
I'd love to know how it feels to sing 
Cloudbusting as if it were my own. 


What do you sing in the shower? 


A Crowded House medley, with all 
my heart. 


What is your favourite Saturday 
night record? 

[Zeus B. Held project] Gina X 
Performance, Nice Mover. 


And your Sunday morning record? 


‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny, Out Of The Blue, 
followed immediately by Trust In Rock. 
| could listen to these for the rest of 
eternity and never tire of them. 


Pompeii is out now on Mexican Summer. 
Cate tours the UK in March and Europe 
in April. 





people like John Abercrombie, 
Derek Bailey, Steve Hackett, are 
all people | admire greatly and wish 
| could emulate better. 


What do you sing in the shower? 
| sit in silence and weep. 


What is your favourite Saturday 


The CD single for R.E.M.’s Man On 


The Moon. I'd seen the Andy night record? 


What do you sing in the shower? 


Tina K, H. Hawkline 





| sing long notes and practise 
vibrato. That pleading quality. 


What is your favourite Saturday 
night record? 

To go with a swing, A Night At The 
Opera. The all-out joyous aspect 
of Queen. 


And your Sunday morning record? 


Art Garfunkel's Watermark. A 
beautiful, gentle album and an 
absolute masterpiece. A great singer, 
and most of the songs are by Jimmy 
Webb. Maybe I'll listen to that over 
breakfast on a sunny day, out in 

the garden. 


Steve brings his 25-date Genesis Revisited 
- Foxtrot at Fifty + Hackett Highlights | 
tour to the UK in Sept/Oct. | 


Kaufman biopic and loved their song 
in it. Went to a store in Rockford, IL 
called Media Play to purchase it. 
Giant store. The size of a used car lot. 
| think it's bulldozed now. 


Which musician, other than your- 
self, have you ever wanted to be? 
Never had that fantasy. Most of the 
musicians | like had heart disease 
and died at, like, 38.1 can say that 


XTC, English Settlement. | have 
dark and cryptic Saturdays. | hate 
going out. 


And your Sunday morning record? 


Mark Eitzel, West. One of the all- 
time great, great song records. 
Incredibly sad, incredibly funny. The 
whole thing is kinda talking about 
the “oh boy” element of waking up 
on a Sunday. It's very shut-in with 
private thoughts of being a city slick- 
er. | love Mark so much and | think 
this to be his finest hour. I'm trying to 
quit smoking and this record doesn't 
help. Great to smoke cigarettes to. 


Post Wook by Andrew Scott Young/Ryan 
Jewell/Ryley Walker, and much else 
besides, is out now on Husky Pants. See 
huskypantsrecords.bigcartel.com 


MOJO 9 





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Editor 
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Thanksfor their help with this 
issue: Keith Cameron, 
Del Gentleman, lan Whent 


Among this month's 
contributors: 
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Martin Aston, Mike Barnes, 
Mark Blake, Glyn Brown, 
John Bungey, Keith Cameron, 
Stevie Chick, Adam Clair, 
Andrew Collins, Andy Cowan, 
Grayson Haver Currin, 
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Jon Savage, Victoria Segal, 
David Sheppard, Michael 
Simmons, Sylvie Simmons, 
MatSnow, Ben Thompson, 
Kieron Tyler, Charles Waring, 
Lois Wilson, Stephen Worthy. 


Amongthis month's 
photographers: 
Cover: John Downing/Getty Images 
(insets: Getty, Alamy), 

Greg Allen, Lance Bangs, Chris 
Bilheimer, Bob Bonis, Chris Buck, 
John Downing, Phoebe Fox, 
Alysse Gafkjen, Wolfgang 
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10 MOJO 


Theories, 
rants, etc. 


MOJO welcomes correspondence for publication. 
E-mail to: mojoreaders@bauermedia.co.uk 





IN AN ISSUE OF NME FROM AUGUST 1963, 


George Harrison is found at a table in Liverpool’s Blue Angel club, considering 
what he might do in the future. There’s enthusiastic talk of opening a go-kart 
track; Adam Faith is interested in investing. “Weird stuff” with a tape recorder, 
that involves John Lennon’s poetry. Perhaps, eventually, even songwriting. “I 
haven't bothered in the same way as John and Paul,” he admits, “though I'd like 
to have a stab sooner or later.” 

George Harrison’s time as a great songwriter would come soon enough. But 
as the extraordinary Get Back series makes so tangible, being heard was not 
always easy for this most self-effacing of Beatles. “I’ve got a few slow ones... if 
you want?” he offers hesitantly, as the quartet struggle for inspiration in 
Twickenham Film Studios. 

This month, we examine how George’s songwriting genius emerged. We 
pinpoint his 30 greatest songs. And we uncover a revealing Paul McCartney 
interview about his old friend, and how tricky it was to give him what he wanted 
when “John and I were writing some... good stuff.” 

As, it transpires, was George. Given the opportunity to play one of those slow 
songs in Twickenham, he opts for one with “no solo or anything complicated”. 
Its title? All Things Must Pass. Already a masterpiece, it doesn’t make the cut. 





JOHN MULVEY, EDITOR 


first Grateful Dead show with him and stayed at 
his house. Fast forward eight years, I'm working 
my first post-college job and I see his byline on a 
record review in a Buffalo, New York paper. I saw 
his college band The Secret open for Patti Smith 
and later took a date to see Mink DeVille, Rockpile, 
and Elvis Costello and had a bite with Dimitri and 
his girlfriend before the show. He had transformed 
himself from a spotty hippy teenager into this 
elegant Mod punk. I lost track of him until seeing 
his obituary, not knowing he had changed his name. 
Mike Spak, Colorado 


It is symbolic of our 


struggle against oppression 


Reading the obituary of the Angelic Upstarts singer 
Mensi [MOJO 340] brought back fond memories 
of a gig of theirs I attended in the Refectory Café at 
Newcastle University in the late 1970s. At the point 
that Mensi produced a severed pig’s head wearing a 
policeman’s helmet, the venue was raided by baton- 
wielding police in full riot gear. We dived under a 
table, giggling in terror, as a mass brawl broke out 
around us. We escaped unscathed with long-lasting 
memories of a unique evening. 

Paul Williams, via e-mail 





Bloody miracle, sir 
Deep thanks for the World Party article [MOJO 338]. 


For longer than I’ve subscribed to this publication, 
Karl Wallinger has been a hero: pop wunderkind, 
recluse, Beatles freak. I’ve travelled far and near for 

a deep dive of Arkeology. To learn more about a band 
I've loved all this time is all the reason I count the 
days for the next MOJO to arrive and to pen my first 
note to you in 25 years as a reader. Best wishes for a 
safe, healthy and musically delicious 2022. 


Eric Silver, via e-mail 


C’mon, what’ve you 

been up to, my lad? 

I was glad to see that Dimitri ‘Dee Pop’ 
Papadopoulos of the Bush Tetras got a mention in 
Real Gone [MOJO 338]. I met Dimitri when he 
was a guest at the Catskills hotel where I worked 
in the kitchen on my summer break from college. 
We would hang out in his room getting high and 
listening to the Allmans and Bowie. I went to my 





Oh, yeah, yeah, there's one. 


But otherwise, we're solid... 


I really enjoyed your 1971 Nuggets article [MOJO 
339] and it certainly stirred some ghosts. I pored 
over many of those album sleeves in record shops 
weighing up whether to make a purchase. It also 
reminded me just how narrow the opportunity to 
hear new music was in 1971. It was either through 
the evening programmes on Radio 1, or you 
borrowed records from one of your mates. And if 
it hadn't been on the radio, your mates probably 
didn't have it anyway. The only other way was to take 
a chance based on a favourable review in one of the 
weekly magazines, a high-risk strategy as I recall. 
Anyway, off to investigate all that I missed the first 
time round. 


Jim Moss, Wimbledon 


...In the summer of 1971 I was a long-haired 
16-year-old lad with dodgy flares and bad acne, on 
holiday at my granny's house in Coatbridge when Top 
Of The Pops came on the TV and Buffy Sainte-Marie 
appeared singing Soldier Blue. I was blown away and 
the next day I hopped on a Baxter's bus to Airdrie, 
ran into John Menzies and snapped up this recently- 
released LP Excitedly I played it but winced when 
I heard the f-word. My shocked granny advised me 
to take it back to the shop, bless her, but that didn't 
happen. One of the first albums I bought and it still 
plays frequently on my turntable. Consider yourselves 
admonished for not mentioning this classic piece of 
vinyl in your ace 1971 Nuggets piece. 

David Graham, Corby 


...Led Zeppelin weren't the only band to release an 
untitled fourth LP in 1971. Slightly less celebrated 

is the fourth and final album by Worcester, 
Massachusetts soft-rockers Orpheus — in fact, I seem 
to be the only person who likes it. I gather they were 
initially part of an over-hyped *Bosstown Sound" 
movement (circa 1968) which may have raised 
suspicions at the time. For their fourth LB Orpheus 
were down to a duo of founder member Bruce 
Arnold plus newcomer Steve Martin (disappointingly 
neither the Steve Martin from The Left Banke nor the 
future Hollywood comedian and sometime bluegrass 
guitarist). The great Bernard Purdie guests on drums. 
Martin seems to have staged something of a coup, but 
the LP didn't sell and Orpheus broke up soon after. 


Pete Rae, via e-mail 


You've got to 
think for yourselves! 
You're all individuals! 


I have collected vinyl albums for more than 40 
years and enjoyed your list of lesser-known gems 
from 1971. Your list was strongly Anglo-American- 
directed, although you managed to squeeze in 
Bróselmaschine, Flower Travellin’ Band and 


FREE TO YOUR DOOR 
WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE! 


Supersister. To rectify this, I have assembled my 
European Top 10. A lot of these albums are still quite 
unknown outside their home countries. Thanks to 
fellow collector Haaken Eric Mathiesen for assisting 
me in this momentous exercise — we ended up with 
about 200 albums. The rest of the world? Oh, that 
would mean at least another 100 LPs... 
1. Junipher Greene — Friendship 
2. Krokodil — An Invisible World Revealed 
3. Aphrodite's Child — 666 
4. Paroni Paakkunainen — Plastic Maailma 
5. Culpeper's Orchard — Culpeper s Orchard 
6. Wigwam — fairyport 
7. Pan & Regaliz — Pan & Regaliz 
8. Amon Düül II — Tanz der Lemminge 
9. Panna Freda — Uno 
10. Sogmusobil — Telefon 

Dag Erik Asbjgrnsen, via e-mail 


At least it gets you 


out in the open air 


Thanks for Tom Doyle's article on Pink Floyd's 
forgotten gem Obscured By Clouds [MOJO 340]. 
As someone who's made a few records in my time, 
I find it staggering that they were able to pull this 
one out of the bag in 12 days, written and recorded. 
And surely Stay remains testament to the quiet and 
unsettling genius of Rick Wright. Had to give it a 
spin after reading the article and I’m happy to say 
it's still my favourite Floyd album. 

Andy Frizell, Institute Of Popular Music, University 
Of Liverpool 


Look, you've got it all wrong 


Regarding your Album Of The Year [MOJO 338] – 
I think you've gone soft in the head. Floating Points 
& Pharoah Sanders' Promises is such a boring record. 
I have not heard such rubbish since Metal Machine 
Music by Lou Reed. Disappointing! 

Ken Daykin, Ipswich 


Oh I say, that’s very nice 


Thank you so much for the wonderful articles on 
The Monkees and Michael Nesmith in MOJO 340. 
Highlighting Nez's creative work with The Monkees 
and as a gifted solo artist is greatly appreciated. 

Fred Velez, Red Lion, Pennsylvania 


Incidentally, this record's 


available in the foyer 


I would say joining the MOJO subscription train is 
the best decision I've made in many a year, but it 
puzzles me why there is no mention of Marillion. Pm 
not too fussed about their incarnation with Fish as 
lead singer, but with Steve Hogarth as frontman for 
me the band have made some of the most interesting 
rock music of the last 30 years. It would make a lot of 
people happy to see them shown a bit of MOJO love. 
Gary fage, Eastbourne 


RIGHT NOW! 
And you'll get MOJO 
delivered direct to 
your door. See page 
25 for full details... 





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When yaon herre heel rit 
Pix кнм pierre pire d! 


(ipso. Regulated ( 





MOJO 11 


d 


“ч 1 

































6 6 D O YOU THINK if I chose a stage 
name today, I'd call myself Meat 
Loaf?" the singer and actor born 
Marvin Lee Aday asked MOJO in 2013. *Nobody 
in their right mind would call themselves Meat 
Loaf.” But Meat Loaf, who died on January 20, 
understood the value of his name. 

Meat (as he liked to be called) brought the 
bombast of Wagnerian opera and the sentimen- 
tality of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical to 
hard rock. His most famous work, 1977 Bat Out 
Of Hell, would go on to sell 44 million copies and 
make him a household name. 

Aday was born in Dallas, Texas, on September 
27, 1947, and acquired his nickname while 
playing for his high school football team. “But 
names and ages piss me off,” he once warned. 
“So I continually lie.” 

His true passion was music and drama, and he 
moved to Los Angeles and formed his first group, 
Meat Loaf Soul, in 1967. Having grown up with 
jibes about his weight, he created a larger-than- 
life persona to match. “He was a real theatrical 
character,” said his friend Alice Cooper. “Like a 
Pentecostal preacher on-stage.” 

After touring with the musical Hair, Meat 
joined singer Shaun ‘Stoney’ Murphy on the 
album, Stoney & Meatloaf, released on Motown 
subsidiary Rare Earth in 1971. It was a modest 
hit, but afterwards 
Meat returned to 
musical theatre, 
where he met 
aspiring songwriter 
Jim Steinman. The 
pair started pitching 
Steinman’s rock- 
opera/musical Bat 
Out Of Hell in 1974. 
Nobody was 
interested. Mean- 
while, Meat appeared 
in the original 
theatre production 


Years of the Bat: the man 
. . and the myth in his under- 
= stated pomp; (above) Meat 
` Loaf singing Bat Out Of 
Hell on-stage with Karla 
DeVito, 1978; (below) with 
` songwriter Jim Steinman. 





of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and its 1975 
movie version. 
Bat Out Of Hell was rejected by almost 
every record company in America, until Todd 
Rundgren agreed to produce. Rundgren loved 
the work, but presumed its death-wish anthems 
and teen-angst mini-dramas were a parody of 
Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run LP. This was 
Meat Loaf's eternal dilemma. He was playing a 
character, but also deadly serious. “I was never 
a parody of anyone or anything,” he insisted. 
Heavy touring and drug use took its toll 
on Meat Loaf's voice, and a follow-up, Dead 


Ringer, didn’t appear until 1981. AUK Number 


1, Cher duet Dead Ringer For Love was also 
a UK Number 5 hit. Meat and Steinman later 
fell out. The singer’s career had dipped in the 
US, but he enjoyed further UK Top 10 hits 
with 1983's Midnight At The Lost And Found 
and ’84’s Bad Attitude. 

Meat changed his birth name to Michael and 
appeared in movies throughout the '80s and 
'905, including Roadie, Wayne’s World and Fight 
Club, where he wore 28lb fake breasts in the role 
of beleaguered cancer sufferer Bob Paulson. 

Meat Loaf and Steinman reconciled for 1993's 
Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell, with I'd Do 
Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) giving 
Meat his first US and UK Number 1 hit. They 
continued the franchise with 2006's Bat Out Of 
Hell Ш: The Monster Is Loose, and collaborated 
on his final album, 2016's Braver Than We Are. 

By then, Meat Loaf had been diagnosed with 
the heart condition, Wolff-Parkinson-White 
Syndrome. Other health issues had contributed 
to his decision to stop touring after 2013's Last 
At Bat Tour. Meat Loaf had been an outspoken 
critic of Covid mask mandates and compulsory 
vaccination. At the time of writing, the cause of 
his death was unknown. 


Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy, Getty (2) 


Mark Blake 


MOJO 13 


Murdoch-ument and eyewit- 
ness: (clockwise from main) 
Stuart gets focused; Sarah 
Martin fights introversion; 
(from left) Bobby Kildea, 
Chris Geddes and Richard 
Colburn claw for the light. 


=й md 


HE DAY BEFORE MOJO's Zoom call 


| with Belle And Sebastian, their 

European tour was cancelled. “I’m 
really glad actually,” says singer and multi- 
instrumentalist Sarah Martin. “I was thinking, 
God, we'll be lucky if we get three days into it 
without us all having it..." 

The Covid era has impacted on the 
Glasgow indie institution in other ways. 
They'd planned to record in glamorous Los 
Angeles in 2020, with Adele/Killers/War On 
Drugs producer Shawn Everett. "He's very hot 
just now and we had this opportunity to work 





Century also arrives in April. Songs 
include Goodbye Mr Blue, 
Buddy's Rendezvous and 
Kiss Me (I Loved You) ... 











1А 5s (right) Just 

Like That... is expected in 

April... 

announcing their birt 

of her daughter Elio, 

has told her listeners, 

"| can't wait to play you 

what I've been writing. 

| have some new music 

СОП ООШ OON oe 
ISSUES LP. 

Skinty Fia, arrives in April. Regular 

foil Dan Carey produces ... 


LM. 


Fa 


Getty (2), Cheryl Dunn (3) 


14 MOJO 
















DESTROY DELUSION, 
EMBRACE DHARMA 
ON CLUBHOUSE LP |I 


| playedonthe newLP 
| byCubansingerand 


Trees/Mad Season man 

Barrett Martin played 

drums and produced ... 
-that’s Clare Grogan and 


Title: TBC 
Date: TBC 
Production: Belle 
And Sebastian, 
Brian McNeill 

| Songs: Prophets Оп 
Hold/Young And 
Stupid/Deathbed 
Of My Dreams 

The Buzz: "I'd never 
assume to impinge 
any styleon 
anybody else. We 
have our multiple 
writers, andit’s 
always a case of 
delivering the 
individual song the 
bestyoucanand 
then you make your 
best compilation 
tapeoutofthem." 
Stuart Murdoch 



















with him,” says singer, guitarist and keyboard- 
ist Stuart Murdoch. “Of course, that’s when 
Covid struck. It was very, very Belle And 
Sebastian timing.” 

After a rescheduled visit later in the year 
also got canned, they decided to do some 
renovations at their “clubhouse” in Finnieston 
- named in The Times as one of the top 20 
Hippest Places To Live In Britain in 2016 - 
and doit right there. “I've not enjoyed our 
clubhouse in the past," says Murdoch. "It was 
always dirty, damp. But! personally have had 
a more focused recording experience than 


< Chloé And The Next 20th 


Butler and Bobby Bluebell 
from The Bluebells also 
contribute ...the New 

York Times reports 

onanew 


Peter Buck and Krist 
Novoselic have both 
(right) LP, 


with singerJohnny 

Cronin of County 

Longford band Cronin 
saying, "It's still punk, and 

it's still Irish, and it still goes to 
the heart." He added they'd 
completed 20 tracks, including seven 


guitarist 
"Exeter rte. 


Steve Lironi – release new album 
Mascara Streakz in August. Bernard 





practically ever before. In fact, | can’t imagine 
amore positive way of spending lockdown.” 

After spending "two or three months” 
rigging up the clubhouse for studio record- 
ing, work commenced in February 2021 and 
continued until December, with the band and 
regular engineer Brian McNeill producing. 
Murdoch, whose personal piano room was 
decorated with posters of LA and San 
Francisco, says his main contributions this 
time involved programming beats and 
adding synth chords, which the band would 
then build on. “I don’t think we've done much 
of that in the past,” he says. “But as not 
everybody was available at all times, we made 
it work to our advantage.” 

“When things started to kind of come into 
shape, it all happened really quite quickly,” 
says Martin. “I remember Stuart saying that 
he thought it was going to be quite introspec- 
tive, and there were a couple of my songs that 
I knew | didn't want to be introspective. Over 
the course of making it, the scale of things 
became more expansive.” 

With horns, strings, discreet electronics 
and classic pop melodies, the album’s wistful 
indie pop with soul, disco and country 
flavours proves the clubhouse plan paid off 
(the Adele factor was saved when they sent 
some recordings to Everett to finish off). 
Murdoch’s interest in Buddhism is apparent 
"there's Dharma in pretty much every song 
| wrote!" he says), while other tracks bear the 
imprimatur of The Smiths, though Murdoch 
says they're written by "the least Smithsy 
people in the band." Elsewhere, he explains, 
there are sombre moments of the kind life 
throws up: "The songwriting stance is, with 
the darkness behind you, you're facing 
towards the light, absolutely clawing for 
the light and clawing to get out of there." 

During the process, Martin mentions 
"quite a bit of drama. There's always drama," 
but they decline to elaborate. "It was nothing 
too crazy," says Murdoch. "Everything was 
pretty smooth. We're very comfortable in 
each other's presence and Brian's never lost 
it with us. I think with humour, and just by 
being quite genteel with each other, that's 
how you manage to keep going." 

lan Harrison 


originals of previously unrecorded 
MacGowan lyrics and a Doris Day 
Goes – AKA 
b, Claudia Brücken and 
Susanne Freytag of ZIT 
cults Propaganda - 
release new LP TheHeart 
| IsStrangein May. It's 
produced by Steve 
Lipson, who worked on 
Propaganda's 1985 LP A 
Secret Wish, and echoes its 
predecessor's high-gloss 
sound: "It never seemed right that 
the story stopped,” they say... 





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Winters’ tales: (clockwise 
SE from above) Edgar stakes 
T his claim in 2022; Johnny 
| (left) and his bro support 
| vienen Kiss on the Destroyer Tour 
7 at the Atlanta Fulton County 
Stadium, August ’79; looking 
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Edgar Winter and friends from ZZ With shoulder-length cotton-white hair — was a conflicted icon. “He was torn between 
Top Eagles and The Beatles pay both brothers were born with albinism — the blues and rock. He had the drive to be a 


tribute to late blues sibling Johnny. TE] the Tean met wih ding сай And when he achieved everythinghe 
6 6 THOUGHT SINGING these songs media acclaim. Columbia paid an unprece- hoped for — the recognition, the adulation 
| was going to be kinda sad and dented $600,000 advance to sign "the — he hated it. I remember him telling me, 
sombre, but it turned out to be really whitest white blues man" in 1969 (a year 'I never thought it would be like this. I feel 
joyous and uplifting." Edgar Winter's talking earlier Led Zeppelin received $200,000 so isolated, so alone, I don't know who I can 
about Brother Johnny, his newly-recorded from Atlantic). When Johnny trust. Everybody has an idea of 
tribute album to his elder brother, the late, formed a rock-oriented band m | who I am based on this image. 
- great blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter. with Rick Derringer as second Both being Nobody sees the real me.” It 
> “The blues is about transforming suffering guitarist, an arena-level al bino was no surprise to Edgar when 
into joy,” he goes on. “I really believe that concert draw was born. And 7 Johnny returned to the blues 
is a great part of what the blues does." Winter — with the drugs, the We had a in the mid "70s to produce and 
His starry cast of sidemen includes girlfriends (briefly Janis un iq ue ly play on the Grammy-winning 
illy Gibbons, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Joe Joplin), the rehab — seemed the diff { albums that revived the career 
onamassa, Keb’ Mo’, Derek Trucks and hard-living, hard-loving wild птегеп of Muddy Waters. 
others, all united in salute of loud, fast and man of rock incarnate. mind set." Johnny and his brother, 
to-the-point pioneer guitar hero Johnny. But Edgar says his brother almost three years younger, 


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grew up in a music-loving | = 
household in Beaumont, | | 
Texas. “We were inseparable & 
as kids,” says Edgar. “I think. " 

we had a relationship different to anyone 
else, learning to play music together, and 
both being albino we had a uniquely different 
mindset and world view." Was their 
condition a problem at school in the 

'50s? "In a way," he says. 

“But if you're too fat or too short or too thin, 
kids are going to pick up on that. Johnny 

had a different way of handling it. He was 

the extrovert and I was the introvert. He had 
the drive and the ambition. He was Johnny 
‘Cool Daddy’ Winter with the pompadour 
and the girls." 

While his elder brother seized the guitar 
and the blues, Edgar's interests strayed 
further afield — R&B to jazz, and classical. 

If Johnny had the axe, Edgar took everything 
else — alto saxophone, keyboards, percussion. 
He also became an arranger — skills that 


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would eventually win 
the ultimate prize, a 
1973 US Number 1 
single with funky- 
prog instrumental 
Frankenstein. 

But before that, 
Edgar played in 
bands led by Johnny: 
*I did Woodstock 
with him. At the 
time people didn't 
even know he had 
a brother. After his 
trio had played the 
first part of the show 
he introduced me to 
the crowd, I walked 
out and it was kinda, 
'Ah OK, so there's 
two of them.” 

Since Johnny's 
passing on July 16, 
2014, making Brother 

Johnny was partly 
about acknowledging 
a debt. "Johnny is my 
all-time musical 
hero," says Edgar. 

"Tf it weren't for him 
I certainly wouldn't be where 

I am today." 

The album is a mix of 
Johnny Winter songs, stage 
favourites — Jumping Jack 
Flash, Johnny B. Goode — and 
: two originals by Edgar. “I 
° A didn't want to do a nostalgia 
album or a soundalike album. 
I feel Johnny had a 
depth and scope that 
most people are 
unaware of," he says, 
citing the moody and 
haunting Stranger, 
originally on the John 
Dawson Winter III 
album. *It shows a 
more vulnerable, 





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Brathan 


artistic side that he 

doesn’t usually like 

f^ to reveal.” Michael 
| McDonald sings 


Stranger on Brother 

Johnny, Joe Walsh plays guitar and there's a 
guest contribution from Ringo Starr, whose 
All-Starr Band regularly features Edgar. 
“I don't think Ringo plays on many people's 
albums, but he said, ‘Ill do it for you.’ It's got 
all those trademark signature fills from him.” 

Edgar, now 75, is pretty sure Johnny 
would admire the results. “The question 
was, do I do a straight blues album and pay 
tribute to the great legacy that Johnny left, 
or should it be more a dedication from me 
to my brother and based more on my 
preferences, and what I think he would like 
to hear? I tried to make a balance of both. 
I hope I've succeeded.” 








John Bungey 


Brother Johnny is released by Quarto Valley Records on 
April 15. I nfo: www.quartovalleyrecords.com 





Stuart A. 
Staples 


| Our Mother The Mountain is 
an album | often return to. 

™ Like old friends, we have an 
understanding. And like the 
best of friends, there is 
never a need to impress. 

Townes' songs nevertry hard to gain 
your attention, you always feel like you 
are happening on them. There can be 
immense sadness but it’s never over- 
wrought, and his natural humour always 
balances. The insights are conversational, 
never presented - take them if you want. 
Andthe plain beauty and honesty of it all. 

In 19901gota job at the Rough Trade 
shop and moved from Nottingham to 
London. Iwas used to working in record 
shops. Some days are really busy but 
there are also many dreamy afternoons 
discovering music. І started to notice the 
final CDs in the filing system were by an 
artist called Townes Van Zandt. These 
albums had been sitting there since the 
shop opened some four years earlier. 

One of those afternoons | decided to 
see who this guy was, arbitrarily picking 
out Our Mother The Mountain. Nothing 
really happened, then Kathleen came on, 
| played it again, then again: "Butlain'tin 
the mood for sunshine anyway.” I know... 

In’911was atthe Reading Festival. 
| made the decision to not watch Nirvana, 
and find the small tent on the edge of the 
festival where Townes was playing with 
Guy Clarke. It was a watershed moment, 
| left something behind that night and 
gained something much greater. 

I experienced areal humanity in music, 
maybe for the first time. 

Over the last 30 years Townes has 
become a musical companion to me, the 
songwriter | return to most. In his lifetime 
people didn't give a shitabout his songs 
риат notsurethat mattered to him. 
There was bigger stuff going on. 





PastImperfect: The Best Of Tindersticks 


'92-'21 is out on March 25 on City Slang. 


OUR MOT 
[e 





THE MOUNTAIN 
VAN ZANDT 


MOJO 17 


ROCK'N'ROLL | 
CONFIDENTIAM 


Not for sale: the 
great Ken Boothe, 
soul reviver. 


| 
















UNDISPUTED 
BOOTHE 

Ken's favoured 
bunch of five. 


I Jackie Wilson 


Lonely Teardrops 
(BRUNSWICK, 1958) 

2 Otis Redding 
I've Got Dreams 

To Remember 
(ATLANTIC, 1968) 

3 Lavern Baker Jim 
Dandy (ATLANTIC, 1956) 
4 Louis Jordan Let 
The Good Times Roll 
(DECCA, 1946) 

5 Marie Knight 
Come Tomorrow 


Your own childhood іп Denham 
Town was poor financially but, 
you say, spiritually rich. 


Exactly. We had no money but my 
mother loved singing and when | 
was 10 she took me to the YMCA. 

I didn't know the words to the 
songs but | made them up, and 
once | started to sing | knew that 
was my purpose. My mum made 
me realise that and my friend 
Stranger Cole made it happen. 


Stranger Cole wasrecording for 
Duke Reid atthe time. 


| was 15 when he took me to 
audition for Duke Reid. He lent me 
his trousers, becausel didn't have 


(OKEH, 1961) 





any smart ones to wear, but they 
were so tight | couldn't zip them up. 
When Duke Reid saw me he asked Stranger if 
the fat little boy could sing. When he heard 
us do [1964 hit 45] Unos Dos Tres he sent us 
Straight upstairs to record it. Then we went 
to Coxsone Dodd, he was like Jamaica's 
Motown. | took off in the UK with Nat King 
Cole's When | Fall In Love in 1967. The UK was 
the first country outside Jamaica to embrace 
Caribbean music and put it in the charts. 


Lloyd Charmers, your producer at 
that time, wasn't set on you recording 
Everything | Own, was he? 


Initially Lloyd Charmers said no. He liked to be 
in charge and choose the songs. But | needed 
one more to finish my album, and when I had 
been touring in Canada a friend had played 
me Andy Williams' version of Everything I 
Own and said how | must record it. David 
Gates of Bread had written the song about 
the loss of his father, but | turned it into a love 
song and the studio owner said if it didn’t get 
to Number 1 she'd sell the complex! | was 

sat on my veranda smoking weed when the 
postman came with a telegraph telling me it 
was a breaker in the UK and would sing on 
Top Of The Pops? I was touring and couldn't 
make it the first time, so they made a film of 
someone else miming itin the shadows and 
everyone thought it was me. 








``  Trojanwentbankruptin 1975 and left 


you high and dry. 


4. Г E ol T «= 9 


KEN BOOTHE 


Us and Tell Me Why, a mournful roots 
recorded with west London's Soul Revivers 
for their On The Grove project. 


| was in New York when | heard. | flew to 
London to the office and it had been 
abandoned. It was heartbreaking, | lost 
everything, but I am philosophical. І went 
back to Jamaica and picked myself up and 
| am still singing Everything | Own when | 
perform today. 


The reggae elder on number ones, 
losing everything and fighting back. 


B 


ORN IN DENHAM Town, Kingston, 
Jamaica, Ken Boothe brought soul, 
grit and emotion to reggae. From ska 
beginnings as half of Stranger [Cole] & Ken 
for producer Duke Reid, through rocksteady 
with Coxsone Dodd, he moved on to 
recordings for Trojan with Lloyd Charmers, 
including his cover of Bread's Everything 
I Own, а 1974 UK Number 1. 

Wrongfooted when Trojan folded in 
1975, he pushed forward into dancehall, 
was namechecked on The Clash's (White 
Man) In Hammersmith Palais in 78, 
received Jamaica's Order Of Distinction in 
2003 and never stopped singing. Now 73, he 
used lockdown to record his kids LP Wait For 


Tell us something you've nevertold an 


How did you become involved with | | 
interviewer before. 


the Soul Revivers? 





| havetears coming from my 
eyes while lam talking to you. 
The world can be a cruel place 
butit means so much that 
people still love me. | may be 
old and nothing lasts forever, 
but as long as | still have my 
voice and there are people 
listening, | will keep singing. 
God is good. 


They sent me music and 
asked me to write lyrics and 
sing. | wrote the song with my 
son. It’s about how we spend 
too much time fussing on our 
Androids [phones] and not 
enough time building 
communities. As singers we 
have to lead the way, lift 
people spiritually. We live 

in a divided world, there is 
always so much fighting 
when we should be uniting 
for the children. 


“Stranger 
Cole lent me 
his trousers.” 





Lois Wilson 


Ken Boothe sings on Soul 
Revivers' On The Grove, out 
March 11 on Acid Jazz. 


18 MOJO 





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Fino US oN f ack - 































Getty 


UNSINKABLE 







POP STAR 


in the school playground,” recalls 

enduring rock outsider John Otway. 
^I knew I'd attract an audience. It turns your 
pee blue." 

Attention-seeking has stood him in good 
stead. The Aylesbury-born free spirit turns 70 
this year and, before his birthday, reaches 
another landmark: his 5,000th gig. “I never 
thought I'd retire," he declares. *Up to late 
1976 I was a dustman which I quite liked, I 
was quite fit. But the driver said, ‘If you don't 
stop doing this, you'll be doing it when you're 
60. I was horrified. I wanted to be a pop star." 


6 6 | T STARTED very early, drinking ink 


20 MOJO 


DUSTMAN-TURNED- 
RACKS UP 5,000 GIGS 





I’m Free: John Otway 
gets ready for some 
high-octane rustic 
lunacy, 1977. 





His first attempt came (RED BOWLER, 2017) 
in 1972, when John and his 
on-off straight man Wild 
Willy Barrett recorded 
bluegrass-infused ditty 
Misty Mountain. After a 
first bust-up with Barrett, 
Otway self-issued the 
single with his as the 
sole credit. John Peel 
played it, Pete 
Townshend heard 
it and offered to 
produce them — as 
a duo. Townshend- 
produced singles 
from ’73 and "76 
failed to click, but 
the pre-punk do-it- 
yourself boldness 
had created interest. 
When it arrived, 
punk allowed idiosyn- 
cratic souls through 
the door, and the 





— 


blooming gem. 


nel 


Bare-chested develop- 
ments: Otway rocks the 
Soca Cabana, Montserrat, 
September 2016. 


WAY OUT OTWAY 


Wild Willy Barrett album, so they 
did it themselves. After John 
Peel's support, Polydor picked it 
up and single Really Free 
triumphed. The early years’ 
definitive account. 


Where Did 
Go Right? 


(POLYDOR, 1979) 


Busting up with 


producer. Features the dramatic 
version of Alfred Noyes’ The 
Highwayman, but is otherwise 
orderly - pop, but still wonky. 


Montserrat 


WE see Post-mid 90s 
T a volcanic 
| J. ч | eruptions, Otway 
"EN decided he'd 
E s" | be the first to 
record at George Martin's 
Caribbean island studio since 
The Rolling Stones made Steel 
Wheels there. “You wake up to 
all the gold records,” he says. 
"So you have to do something 
that isn't rubbish." A late- 


duo hit big with edge-of-collapse, cock-eyed 
single Really Free in 1977. Otway's scooting 
around the stage on a wheeled amplifier, 
turning somersaults and sticking a micro- 
phone in his mouth while whooping, as well 
as the fuzz guitar teamed with country 
moves, acquired a new logic. *High-octane 
rustic lunacy” was critic Jon Savage’s 1977 
take. “Being shocking and not very good was 
in vogue,” avers Otway now. “John Lydon 
was a fan. Later, I did a song with Glen 
Matlock — Halloween on the АП Balls & No 
Willy album.” 

Gracing Top Of The Pops with Really 
Free and a legendary October 1977 Old Grey 
Whistle Test appearance where the singer 
hopped onto an amplifier, slipped and 
suffered an eye-watering groin impact, 
meant adieu to the dustcart forever. With or 
without Willy or hits, albums 
accumulated and the fan base 
grew. In 2002, his modest 
but redoubtable following 
propelled disco oddity 














John Otway & Wild Bunsen Burner into the Top 
Willy Barrett 10 in time for Otway’s 50th, 
(EXTRACKED RECORDS/POLYDOR, 1977) | andasecond TOTP 
T TheWhos appearance ensued. 
T management's “1 defined being a pop 
nee Mc star by being on TOTP,” says 
this John Otway & Otway. “If you got in a cab 






and said you were a pop star, 
they'd ask if you were on 
TOTP. Being on TOTP are 
the high spots.” 

He’s written two 
autobiographies and 
attention-grabbing exploits 
were never far, such as an 
abortive 2006 world tour 






























83 Wild Willy meant by plane and 60th birth- 
EX Otway ploughed day-marking movie Rock 
aug on solo with Neil And Roll’s Greatest Failure. 
ш. ЕИ Innesas his 






As he approaches this new 
landmark, Otway's happy 
with his lot. “Гуе brought up 
a family, do as many gigs as 
I want, where anyone can 
chat with me. Quite a 
pleasant position. But a ‘cult 
hero'? My band would say, 
‘Did I hear that right?" 
Kieron Tyler 


John Otway plays his 5,000th gig 


at Shepherd s Bush Empire with his 
band on April 2, 2022. 








































































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Taking courage: 
Alabaster DePlume, 
not safe, but magical. 


PEACE, LOVE AND 






POETRY! THE HEALING 
JAZZ ADVENTURES OF 


6 6 T HANK YOU for being a human!" 
says Alabaster DePlume as our 
Zoom call begins. "Thank you for 

living!" A skinny, hyperactive, Manchester- 
born thirty-something composer, saxophon- 
ist and activist, Alabaster, or Gus Fairbairn 
to use his given name, is equally at ease 
asking MOJO questions ("What do you think 
people need, Andrew?") as answering them, 
and punctuates the interview with such 
encouraging statements as, "Thank you for 
working in journalism. Such noble work!" 

Unlikely exhortations have been part of 
Alabaster's music and poetry since he started 
recording in the early noughties, though 
most fans probably discovered him via 2020's 
compilation of non-vocal works, To Cy & Lee: 
Instrumentals Vol. 1. A serene, delicate 
collection, assembled from eight years' worth 
of under-the-radar releases, it called to mind 
everything from the hovering lightness of 
Ethiopian jazz to the gossamer melodies of 
Celtic and Japanese folk, and struck a chord 
with a multitude of listeners in the early days 
of lockdown, many of whom sent Fairbairn 
heartfelt messages of thanks. 

"Itfeltlike a strange, warm lightness but 
also a weight of responsibility," says Fairbairn. 
"| put it out to create calm, but! didn't know 


22 MOJO 


there was going to be a pandemic. 
That was not part of my plan." 

Raised in Manchester by teacher 
parents, Fairbairn was a heavy metal 
kid who recorded a "goofy pathetic" 
heavy metal LP while still a teenager, 
before leaving home to travel 
the world as an itinerant poet, 
"Completely drunk all the time," 
he says. "Stomping around the 
audience screaming about my pig. 
It was ridiculous." 

Fairbairn became an accompa- 
nist for Manc singer-songwriter Liz 
Green. “I was her saxophonist 
around Europe,” he says. "That's how 
| learned to play softly because Liz is 
very quiet." While In Manchester, 
Fairbairn also worked for the 
Ordinary Lifestyles charity, teaching 
adults with learning disabilities, 


including two men called Cy and Lee. "We 
added music-making to part of our work, 







For fans of 
Ethiopian jazz, 

John Surman, 

Arthur Russell, Alice 
Coltrane, Jarvis 
Cocker. 

"The name 
Alabaster DePlume 
came about when 
| was walking up 
Upper Brook Street 
in Manchester 
dressed quite 
strange. Someone 
driving past leaned 
out of his window 
to share with me 
what he was feeling 
about me. But he 
was driving so fast 
that he didn't have 
time to make a real 
sentence. He could 
only make a sort of 
noise, and the noise 
he made sounded 
to me like ‘Alabaster 
DePlume!’ So | 
couldn't argue — that 
was my name." 

Tattooed on Gus's 
right hand are a line 
of small stick figures 
that represent 
everyone he's been 
in the past. "The 
poet, the traveller... 
| have killed them 
off," he says. 

"But they served 
a purpose." 


Mrs Calamari 

Again (feat. Falle 
Nioke) 

Visitors XT8B 


— Oak 













life,” he says. “I did a show to launch 
my album Peach in December 2015, 
with lots of different performers, 
and they said I should do that 
every month. | started giving 
ownership to the musicians, to 
make it interesting because | 
couldn't do the same gig every 
month. It became my job to 
discover what was going on in 
London every night." 

That's how Fairbairn became а 
driving force in the London jazz 
scene, collaborating with drummer 
Sarathy Korwar and The Comet Is 
Coming and Soccer96 linchpin 
Danalogue. It's also how he 
managed to enlist a different set of 
musicians every day for two weeks 
to record his forthcoming magnum 
opus, Gold. Underpinned by the 
mantra of “I will not be safe, I will be 
magical" and distilled from 17 
hours of music, Gold moves from 
the serene to the chaotic, the 
restive to the restful, incorporating 
everything from sinewy Fela-style 
funk exhortations and hungry 
post-punk bewitchments to 
ethereal ECM gospel jazz, and 
cinematic collectivist lullabies. "If 


the reason for To Cy & Lee was to help people 


have peace,” says Fairbairn, "the reason to 


music that would embody a certain calm." 


Eventually, realising a fearless break 
needed to be made, Fairbairn moved to 
London and found a home for himself at 


Hackney music collective, The Total Refresh- 
ment Centre. "This community changed my 


make Gold is to give people courage and love. 
It's how | made ії, it's what it's about. It's what 


we need next." 
Andrew Male 


Alabaster DePlume’s Gold is released by Lost Map/ 
International Anthem on March 12. 


cROSSTOMN 


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AMAZONE 


STEPS 


OUT OF MALI AND INTO THE 
WORLD OF U2 AND R.E.M. 


finished songs on my album for the 
first time," laughs Rokia Koné down 
the line from Bamako. "They sounded so 
different, not typical of the sounds we hear 
in Mali. Whatever the style or genre - jazz, 
reggae - | will give ita go, but what you 
play in Europe may not be popular here, 
and vice versa." 
It's hardly surprising, for 
the 38-year-old from Ségou, 
a bend in the Niger River 
renowned for its blues 
musicians, has taken a 
circuitous route to releasing 
her solo debut.Firstly, she 
doesn't come from a griot 
family, the traditional musical 
caste – the Konés are nobles - and she grew 
up a tomboy, with a talent for football. Nine 
years ago, she started singing professionally 
for local star Aliya Coulibaly."He taught те а 
lot, then one day told mel was ready to go 
solo, to sing at weddings and perform gigs on 


6 6 | WAS A little shocked when | heard the 


completing it in August 2020. Shortly 
afterwards, however, there was another twist 
in the tale when producer Jacknife Lee heard 
what she had done as an Amazone. 

"| did not know anything about him and 
I'm not familiar with the bands he worked 
with before," Koné admits. But, separated by 
4,000 miles, they swapped ideas online. Koné 

sent Lee her recordings, and 
he would pick up a guitar line, 
isolate a drum, add electronic 
elements. “I had no idea how 
to approach this but | love 
that naivety,” admits Lee, 
the Ireland-born, Califor- 
nia-based producer whose 
previous collaborators include 
R.E.M., U2 and Taylor Swift. 
"| kind of knew where was going and now 
Bamanan feels like the thing | had always 
wished to do." 

"He experimented with what we had 
already created," adds Koné, "and brought 
radical ideas to the arrangements. | love what 


my own. There comes a time when the mentor 
should release the trainee with their blessing." 
After playing Bamako's clubs for a couple 
of years, she started recording, only to be 
immediately head-hunted to join the 
pan-African, female-led supergroup 
Amazones d'Afrique in 2016. Her solo career 
was put on hold for their two albums and 
European dates, although she continued 
working on her debut on the wing, finally 


he has done, he's brought a new perspective 
to my music. It's unique!" 
Finally, the world may be 
ready for "the Rose of 
Bamako", and vice versa. 
David Hutcheon 











For fans of Oumou 
Sangaré, Kandia 
Kouyaté, Amadou & 
Mariam 

Koné's biggest 
influence is Molobaly 
Traoré (1966-2009), 
a traditional singer 
from Ségou. "She 
-— Au - | ишь | my sang old songs, full 

a| of advice, talking 
| about the concerns 
of women and 
children, and that is 
a very important 
part of my music." 

If you happen to 
be in Bamako, Koné 
can usually be found 
singing at reggae 
superstar Tiken Jah 
Fakoly's Radio Libre 
club or Mama Africa. 

European shows 
are pencilled in for 
the spring, and Koné 
and Lee are even 
hoping to meet up 
| atone... 


Rokia Koné & Jacknife Lee's 
Bamanan is out February 18 
on Real World Records. 





























Amazone delivery: 
Rokia Koné, “The 
Rose of Bamako”, 
prepares to launch 
her solo debut. 


Shezita (Take A 
Seat) 

Kurunba 
N'yanyan 
Mayougouba 







Г 


--— 
24 MO! 


уч 











MOJO PLAYLIST 





HORACE ANDY 

The Kingston veteran of yearning, 
epicene voice emotes the Massive Attack 
classic over thumping reggae. From his new 
Sherwood-produced LP Midnight Rocker. 
Find it: streaming services 


WET LEG 

A taster from the smart indie duo's debut 
LP, this elegiac reflection on "sleepwalking 
into adulthood" comes across like sunshine 
pop Joy Division impatient to motorik off. 
Find it: streaming services 


ТА) MAHAL & RY COODER 


af 

= “ee Two veterans protest with 

Ad harmonica and footstamping, 

: in a barn. From LP Get On Board: 
The Songs Of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. 
Find it: streaming services 


THE SMILE 

Funk shuffle, minimal rhythmic guitars 
and elliptical brass finds Yorke vaporously 
imagining soul-immolation, as the Afrobeat 
post-rock diffuses into the night sky. 
Find it: streaming services 


ROLLING BLACKOUTS €.F. 


Triple-guitar action Melbourne quintet throw 
open the curtains to usher in a new LP of 
post-isolation melodic transcendence. Inhale... 
Find it: YouTube 


SUBWAY SECT 


Produced by Mick Jones, loose 

E cocktail-punk ponders success- 
Ex vs-art. "I don’t titillate the 

ladies, l'm too camp for the men." Sing it, Vic! 

Find it: Moments Like These (GNU INO 


KURT VILE 

KV's long lie-in of a voice set to clip- 
clopping drums, phased synth and a slowly 
ascending melody that's as lushly unself- 
conscious as any American stadium icon. 
Find it: streaming services 


Majesty and enigma via $2 

rhythm box and ice rink synth, 

as Vega shakes and shivers fit 
to burst in '77. From new best-of Surrender. 
Find it: streaming services 


CONFIDENCE MAN 


One-fingered piano house, breakbeats, 
gospel choirs, snare rolls - the early-’90s, 
KLF-down-under synthesis is strong. 
Find it: streaming services 


WEATHEREDMAN & THE NOISE 


Leeds duo bring slabs of guitar and pitching 
drums for a QOTSA/glam/thumbs-in-belt- 
loops boogie. From Become The Data, out 
on wax on the MT label. 

Find it: streaming services 


© Michael Moodie, Karen Paulina Biswell 





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2 
сз 
100] 


Lily Rose Сагс 








THE MOJO [INTERVIEW 


How the “lovable puppy” 
of The Lemonheads went to 
the dark side and took his 
time crawling back. With It's 
A Shame About Бау ѕ 30th 
birthday in sight, is it time for 
him to grow up? “Im trying 


my best," 


insists Evan Dando. 


Interview by ANDREW MALE * Portrait by ALYSSE GAFKJEN 


TS A COLD, BRIGHT DECEMBER MORNING 
in Martha's Vineyard and Evan Dando is out to buy 
cigarettes. “I’m staying in a hotel because the heat’s 
not on at home,” the 54-year-old singer explains. 

‘Home’ is his father’s old farmhouse, which he now 
shares with bass player Farley Glavin, and despite the 
early hours he sounds good, bright, a note of optimism in his voice 
that wasn’t there when we spoke a week earlier, towards the end 
of an 18-date US tour. Then, he looked and sounded beat down, 
like he was feeling all of the 35 years he’s been on the road with, 
ог as, The Lemonheads. 

“It’s been an adventure,” he says, a word he keeps coming back 
to, sometimes with flickers of irony, and it’s how he regards his 
rock’n’roll life from the earliest years as a punk-pop outsider on 
the edges of Boston’s late-'80s hardcore scene to the more sketchy 
present. It's a career arc that will always be defined by his break- 
through with 1992's It's A Shame About Ray. Accorded a 30th 
anniversary reissue next month with added B-sides, demos 
and bonus tracks, it's a welcome reminder of when Dando, 
with pin-up looks and easy charm, offered 
tender respite from the cathartic scream of 
grunge. But success came with emotional 
fallout that went public when the worse-for- 
wear singer turned up two hours late for a set 
at 1995's Glastonbury Festival, and ended 
with Dando being checked into Connecticut’s 
Silver Hill mental hospital after suffering a 
breakdown at Sydney Airport. | 

The years that followed saw creative highs * jo 
such as the dark beauty of 1996's Car Button 
Cloth and the vulnerable ache of 2003 solo LP 


WE'RE NOT WORTHY 


Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz 
on his “rock star" friend. 


"Evan always had rock-star 
charisma and a deep 
wellspring of talent. | 
remember him emerging 
from the bathroom at the 
Camden Underworld in 

й 1994 and taking my guitar 
and asking, ‘Is it OK if | sing a song to your 
lady?' Despite his state, he slayed my wife 


Baby I'm Bored, but since 2009 the only official Lemonheads 
releases have been Varshons I and II, a brace of admittedly 
gorgeous covers albums. In between there have been relapses, 
disappearances and long periods of writer's block. If Dando seems 
reluctant to analyse his songwriting in any great depth for MOJO, 
for fear, he says, that it might break “the mystery”, he talks about 
the highs and lows of his life with honesty and a perceptible 
timeworn melancholy. 

“I just recently got off heroin again,” he explains when I ask 
how he’s been. “I hope I'm being humble in my recovery but, 
man, that was a bad one.” 

This was following the death of his father, Jeffrey, in July 202 1 
and he says, “That was a motherfucker right there. It’s such a 
fraught relationship to begin with, the father-son thing, but when 
they die you remember all the amazing stuff.” 


You were born in Essex, Massachusetts. Your mum, Susan, was a 
former fashion model, your dad Jeffrey was a real estate attorney. 
What were they like when you were growing up? 


Really interested in sports. | don’t know if that was to mask underlying 
tensions but they would just go flat out from one 
thing to the next: surfing, skiing, climbing up 
Mount Washington. They were always doing 
crazy physical activities. And we travelled a lot. 
Something was definitely going on underneath 
but we had a lot of fun. My first memory was when 
we went to Costa Rica, before | was even one year 
old. We got stuck in the crab migration, crabs 
advancing down the beach. They wrapped me 

in this sail so the crabs wouldn't get me. 


What kind of music was around the house? 


All soul music, on cassette. Al Green, James Brown. 
My dad was super into Stevie Wonder's Music Of 
My Mind. Very memorably he stopped and 


with Outdoor Type. She'll never forget it." 





MOJO 27 


Courtesy of Evan Dando, Greg Allen, Camera Press/Ed Sirrs, Getty (3), Topfoto, Eyevine, Alamy 


28 MOJO 


<< pulled over on the bridge into Boston to 
listen to Love Having You Around: "Every day 
| want to fly my kite." The Four Freshmen too. 


You started writing songs around 10 and 
your parents divorced when you were 11. 
You've said that was the sand in your oyster 
and the songs were a kind of catharsis. 


Yeah, that was the first era of having music 
that | wrote myself. | wasn't really proud of 
them. The song Frank Mills from Hair was a 
huge influence on me. As far as writers go, 

| loved James Joyce, Angela Carter. | got a 

lot from her: "A walking masterpiece of 
remembered pain" [from 2006's Poughkeepsie] 
is from her. Books were huge. But it wasn't 
until | started writing songs like Stove [on 
1990's Lovey] that anything felt like ‘my thing’. 
Writing songs to get stuff out of yourself, 

to get at the pain and the things that have 


gone wrong, the things that are bothering you. 


It definitely works. 


What kind of school kid were you? 


A bit of a loner. | know everyone says that but 
| wore weird clothes like dashikis and '60s folk 
clothing and had long blond hair. | got a little 
bit teased for that but not in a bad way. Well, 

| got punched out, bottles thrown at my face, 
stitches in two places because | hadn’t cut my 
hair in a while. 


It’s weird to look back at that first 
Lemonheads line-up. You were formed 
at [elite private school] Commonwealth 
School. Ben Deily went to Harvard and 
became a Creative Director, Jesse Peretz 
is now a film director and... 


We were the most bougie band ever. | got 
some shit from Jesse for saying that but what 
are you going to do? That was reality. But Jesse 
is the whole reason | have a career in music. He 
was an incredibly good hustler and knew what 
to do. Make a record, get it on Harvard Radio 
[where he was a DJ] and exploit that to the 


'Head shots: Dando down the years. 


Zest for life: a young 
. Evan, aged six, before 
becoming a Lemonhead. 


No direction: The 
Lemonheads (from left) 
Corey Loog Brennan, Dando, 
Jesse Peretz, Ben Deily, 
West Berlin, June 11, 1989. 


Dressed to impress: with 
Bjórk for a magazine cover 
shoot, November 3, 1993. 


The "super next-level 
fun adventuring" 
years: on-stage at the 
KROQ Weenie Roast, 
Irvine, California, 
June 12, 1993. 


"Oasis were really 
nice to me”: Dando 
tries to get in on the 
act with (from left) 
Bonehead, Liam and 
Noel Gallagher, 
August 30, 1994. 


My Hug Buddy: 

Evan with Sean 
Lennon, New York, 
March 15, 2004. 


It’s ashame about 
spray-paint: Dando 
in his back yard, 


Martha’s Vineyard, 
Massachusetts, April 18, 2019. 


"Whatever makes you 

feel scared you should 
do”: Evan on-stage with the 
re-formed Lemonheads 
(bassist/housemate Farley 
Glavin pictured), Bloomington, 
Indiana, November 10, 2021. 


"It's been an adventure": 
Dando enjoys another 
night on the tiles, 1993. 


fullest. You know, use your nepotism or 
whatever. | was in amongst a lot of people 
way richer than me all the time. 


You became part of the Boston music scene 
from '86 to '88. That was a pretty rich time, 
wasn't it? Throwing Muses, Dinosaur Jr, 
Pixies, Buffalo Tom... 


It was amazing. I was looking back at some 

old English newspapers and someone wrote 
"Lemonheads are my seventh favourite Boston 
band" and that was good! When | was in the 
Blake Babies [circa 1989 mini-LP, Slow Learner] 
we shared a practice room with Pixies and we 
were just thinking, Is this normal? Are bands 
this good? Is life really this amazing? Some- 
times you'd watch them and just want to go 
home. Why bother? They were so good. 


You said Stove was where your songwriting 
voice started to emerge but it also seems 
that your mini tour of Australia in July 1991 
was hugely important. What was the initial 
inspiration for going there? 


Dan Peters from Mudhoney. He was in 
Screaming Trees at the time, we were playing 
with them on this terribly ill-fated package 
tour with Die Kreuzen. No one came. It was like 
50 people every night and we were like, "We 
should go to Australia, | hear it's like England 
in the sun." And Dan was like, "Just go! You're 
gonna love it." And | did, because Dan said go. 


You met these simpatico people there 
like [writing partner] Tom Morgan from 
Smudge and [future Lemonheads bassist] 
Nic Dalton. How do you look back on that 
time now? 


Super next-level fun adventuring. | mean, 

it definitely led to some weird shit but it 
was really great for a long time, just doing 
music with these other people. Tom, Nic but 
also [co-writer of Into Your Arms] Robyn St 
Clare and that was really great. | regained 
my initial innocence. 


L. Af Vi. 
oem al 
























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ES 


= ir) 






a 





You write songs that sound like they’ve 
come easily, so people don’t hear the 
struggle. Compared with Pixies and 
Nirvana, whose songs sounded like 
they were wrenched from their insides, 
yours sounded like they'd been plucked 
from the air. 


It was also about discovering who | really was. 
There's a lot of melancholy on It’s A Shame 
About Вау. | tend toward that. Good frowning 
music. Confetti is about my parents' divorce. 

| was really dumbstruck when my dad left. 

My mom and sister would tend to hang out 
together and | was, “Wow, I'm all alone.” In 

a way | suppose it was really good for me 

to realise that so early on but, man, it was 
hard for a while. | had to do some work on 
entertaining and comforting myself. You know, 
by writing songs. 


You said at the time that the success of It’s 
A Shame About Ray made you a paranoid 
person because you thought, This is too 
easy. l'm going to get my comeuppance. 


It was a tough business. That was a weird time 
because everyone was looking to everyone 
else and our record company didn't know what 
they were doing at all. Nirvana came along and 
we realised we were in the right place at the 
right time and we could get some money from 
it. We didn't object to good luck. Of course, 
you later discover it wasn't so good. 


There's a lot of pain in those songs, but 
your image in the music papers at the time 
was of the lovable puppy dog on drugs. 
You're a smart guy. Was your defence 
mechanism to... 


Not be smart? Well, you'd see the pain if you 
were reading carefully but the overall thing 
was, This kid's keeping it Good Times, you 
know? On my part | thought maybe it would be 
funny to give these people what they wanted. 
But it backfired. If they think you think they 
want it, they don't want it. It got much worse 





later but | knew | was playing with fire. It was 
never as bad for me as it was for my friends and 
family reading these articles. If you're dancing 
on the edge of a cliff it's much more scary for 
the ones watching. 


At the end of Glastonbury 1994, when 

you probably should have had some time 
off, you went on the road with Oasis, 
wearing Kurt Cobain's old coat, a gift from 
Courtney Love. 


Yeah. | remember we were in Ireland and these 
Irish kids were tripping really badly and | was 
like, "Put the coat on, put the coat on", and 
when they put the coat on they 

started feeling OK. So started 

bringing the coat around to people 
having bad trips. That was actually 

pretty fun. Courtney also gave me 

an extra bottle of Kurt's [prescription 
opioid] Buprenorphine. It had his 

name on it. (Laughing) | wish | had 

it now so | could sell it. 


Re-reading some of the on-the- 
road stuff with Oasis, they said 
some pretty cruel things about 
you. Didn't [Oasis sound man] Mark 
Coyle say it would be funny if you 
died on the road with them? 


It was funny. | know it looks worse for people 
that were watching from afar but Oasis were 
really nice to me. Those two weeks before 
Definitely Maybe came out were super amazing 
but when | said goodbye they were a little 
worried about me. l'd been on tour for so long 
that nothing else made sense. So | kept going. 


The wheels visibly started to come off at 
Glastonbury 1995. When we met in 2003 
you explained that you'd turned up late 
to your own gig because you were doing 
heroin in a cottage three hours away 
from the site. 


Yeah. | should have known | wouldn't get back 


in time. | should just not have come back at all. 
That was fucked. | couldn't get through the 
crowd that was there to see me. Personally, | 
had fun that day. Getting booed by Portishead 
fans? | threw a bottle back at them and no one 
dared throw another one at me. | think people 
were like, "This is not your normal entertaining 
tragedy. This is a little too real.’ 


Up to that point you'd been going to 
Australia for recuperation breaks and to get 
off heroin, but the trip in 1995 ended up 
With you being sectioned. What happened? 


Well, back in the day I'd do heroin for a couple 


“Someone wrote, 
‘Lemonheads are my 
seventh favourite 
Boston band’ and 


that was good!” 


of days and stop. Not get addicted. This was 
the first time | had a habit and | did the usual 
thing of getting to Australia, taking some 
speed the first day, ecstasy the next and then 
a bit of acid. That was when | started feeling 
withdrawal but | didn't know what it was. 
The combination of no sleep, drugs and 
withdrawal sent me into a really bad trip and 
| got wicked paranoia and started imagining 
things. | would wake up every morning around 
five and go walking around giving people 
flowers, imagining gun-sights on my face, 
feeding dollar bills into drains hoping they’d 
take me back to America. Then | went to the 
airport with no ticket and | didn’t pay my taxi 
fare and that was when the police came and 


| was like, They're coming! Finally, this makes 
sense! And | was wrestling with all these cops 
at the airport. | was bleeding and in handcuffs 
and they were super nice. 

| think, deep down, there was some weird, 
ridiculous thing on my part that | wanted to 
try and reunite my parents, and they did both 
come to the airport to take me to Silver Hill. 
My sister chose Silver Hill to make it a little 
more fun because that's where Edie Sedgwick 
was sectioned. So even then there was a little 
comic twinge to everything. 


The Lemonheads album you made after 
your time in Silver Hill, Car Button 
Cloth, is effectively a solo album 
with just you, some session 
musicians and Dinosaur Jr's 
Murph on drums. | remember 
you saying at the time that 

“we made no concessions to 
make a popular album". 


That's the kind of music | wanted 
to make. | love that record. It also 
sounds so much better than Come 
On Feel The Lemonheads. It's all 
about the wicked minutiae but 
with a dark side. Thing is, | was 
drinking all fucking day and no 
one wants to see someone drinking 40 drinks 
a day because they get to be an asshole and 
lose their inhibitions and everything sucks. 
But | was very careful to do everything 
right artistically. 


Right down to the album cover with 
your childhood drawing: "All of these 
things sank..." 


OK, that wasn't my childhood drawing. | found 
it on the street in Glasgow and the record 
company made me make up a story about it. 

| didn't draw it. You can tell. In the upper 
left-hand side it says "2p". | thought, This is 
awesome. Serendipity. There is a sadness 

but there is a joy in it. حر‎ 











“I think people j 
were like, ‘This is Р 
not your normal 
entertaining 
tragedy. This isa 
little too real." 





“I tend toward melancholy”: 
Evan Dando, Nashville, 
Tennessee, November 8, 2021. 


30 MOJO 





Alysse Gafkjen 


<< Around that time you said you were 
going to recuperate by going skiing in 
Aspen but you somehow ended up in a 
New York crack den, house-sitting a pair 
of Rottweilers. 


That was the end of 1997, around the time 
[Swell Maps founder and singer-songwriter] 
Epic Soundtracks died, which hit me hard. It 
was announced in the same issue of MOJO as 
Michael Hutchence's obituary. І really liked 
Michael but | just knew Epic would have been 
so pissed off about that. So, yeah, | was staying 
at the house of this kid who was a club owner 
in New York and that was the dark time. 


How did you escape that world? 


Friends. I’ve always just been lucky that way. 

| eventually made it to Aspen, and | was there 
for a long time, getting healthy. | was still 
drinking too much but doing a lot of skiing, 
and going back to Martha's Vineyard. 


It was around then that you met your 
future wife, Elizabeth Moses. 


Yeah. We were living in New York and our 
apartment was in the shadow of the World 
Trade Center as it came down on 9/11. When it 
was happening | was thinking, Oh, this is that 
thing, that thing that your whole life leads up 
to. It was like | knew this was gonna happen 
my whole life. In any footage of 9/11 you can 
see our apartment. That experience was so 
traumatic it threw us in together. We were like, 
"We're gonna get through this..." We didn't 
move out but we should have done. Our 
apartment looked straight into the hole. It was 
too intense to hold onto that for that long. 


How did it end with Elizabeth? 


Partially through some drug problems. Things 
were going great for five/six years, and then 
started to go a little not so great. Then it just 
crashed and fell apart. Funnily enough, Kurt's 
sweater - which Courtney also gave me after he 
died - was going to be my divorce settlement. 
It was worth a lot. | said, "Take it". But she didn't 
even want anything from me. She was like the 
coolest lady ever. She moves on always. Doesn't 
look back. Apparently she's in Finland now but 
none of her friends have heard from her. l've 
got to get a hold of her to finalise the divorce. 

If she's reading this: get in touch. 


Her encouragement was hugely important 
in the making of your 2003 solo album, 
Baby I’m Bored - a great record that seemed 
to offer a template for a way forward for 
you as a solo singer-songwriter. 


Yeah, I’m really proud of that record. We did 

it the right way. Like Car Button Cloth we 
recorded way too many songs and Elizabeth 
was really good at sequencing it and | just kept 
plugging right along and finally stopped 
touring it around 2004. 


The songs on that album, whether it's Ben 
Lee's Hard Drive, Tom Morgan's My Idea or 
your own compositions, they sound like 
safe spaces. Do they play that role for you? 


That's exactly what they do. It's like a little 
haven and that's the thing | like most. You 
know, back in the day you'd hear from lots of 
kids: "Your songs got me through this time..." 
That's the coolest thing to hear. It's great. 


What happened between 2003 and The 
Lemonheads album in 2006? 


| went into the studio around 2005 with 
[Descendents drummer] Bill Stevenson and 

| met [Descendents bassist] Karl Alvarez on 

a tour in South America. | love that band so 
much and Bill's an amazing guy, really fun to 
work with. | don't know. My friends, who don't 
understand the music industry, were like, "Hey, 
this is really good! Why isn't it doing better?" 


Well, see, you can't just make a good record 
and have it do well any more. That's not how 
it happens. Was there any kind of publicity 
budget for it? | guess not. Should | have 
released it as the second Evan Dando album? 
My friend Raphael de Rothschild used to say, 
"Never change the name of your band.” So 

| wasthinking about him [Rothschild died 
of a heroin overdose in 2000]. But, yeah, it 
doesn't matter (sighs). 


You sound tired. 


Every time | make records I'm tired. I'm trying 
my best. Maybe I’m not a natural but I love it 
so much | can't give it up. | still think I’m going 
to do something better than | did before. 
Songwriting is like fishing. It's all about 
waiting. You wait with your guitar until 
something comes in from somewhere else. 
Then there are the ones you spend a long time 
on that are never going to be OK, never as 
good as the ones that happen all at once. 


Were the Varshons covers albums from 
2009 and 2019 a kind of therapy, a way to 
keep doing it even when the new songs 
weren't biting? 

There's something in that for sure but those 
are things to help you do a little touring, you 


CHILDREN OF EVAN 


Dando’s bittersweet fruit, 
picked by Andrew Male. 


Lemonheads 
ЖЖЖ 
Lick 


(TAANGI, 1989) 


тек Although pretty much 

a mish-mash of new 

songs, leftovers and 
re-recordings following 
Dando's acrimonious split 

| — Эи with fellow founding member 
Ben Deily, this curious stop-gap of an album 
represents Lemonheads Mk 1 at their finest. 
A mix of raw Replacements-style garage pop 
and Dando's new-found talent for romantic, 
introspective melancholy. 





‘BUBBLEGRUNGE’ COMETH 


Lemonheads 


ЖЖЖЖ 
It’s A Shame About Ray 


(ATLANTIC, 1992) 


"Well, you'd see the pain if you 
were reading carefully," says 
Dando of his early-'90s 
interviews, and the same can 
be said of this deceptively 
complex collection of melodic 
garage-pop heartbreakers. Gorgeous 
melodies, plaintive harmonies and seemingly 
effortless rhymes hide a multitude of 
uncertainties, sorrows and insecurities. 


THE MATURE CLASSIC 





Evan Dando 


Ж ЖЖЖЖ 
Baby I'm Bored 


(SETANTA, 2003) 


Working with producer-song- 
writer Jon Brion, longtime fan 
Ben Lee, Howe Gelb, Codeine 
drummer Chris Brokaw and 
Calexico's Joey Burns, Dando 
| made the album of his career 
so far. Twelve blithe, poignant evaluations of 
life's highs and lows, softened by darkness, 
and lit by an eerie twilight optimism. It pointed 
a way forward... but to where, we're still 
waiting to find out. 











know? You gotta survive. l'm trying to come up 
with another record, and I really think l'm ready 
to address it now because a lot of the drama 
that surrounds songwriting is ‘heroin-time’. 

| was never relaxed when | was doing that stuff. 
You think, Hey, l'm so relaxed! But it's the 
furthest thing from relaxation when you're 
high on heroin. You are really fucking uptight. 
Fuck that stuff. It's just too sad to see someone 
like that. Too sad. 


In 2014 you were meant to be working 
on a new album with Tom Morgan. 
What happened to that? 


We did try. We had two sessions and we were 
both having fun but there is some sort of block 
we have now. We did so much good stuff 
together and now we try and we don't really 
get anything done. It's always good to see him 
though. It's always worth trying. 


In December 2015 you were inducted 
into the Boston Music Hall Of Fame. 
How was that? 


It was cool. My family all came up and... 

| missed most of it. | kind of fucked up and 
didn't get there until way later. | played the 
show but | missed this weird syndicated TV 
thing they wanted me to do. | missed it on 
purpose. | didn't want to do it. They were really 
pissed at me but they rubbed me up the wrong 
way. But | showed up and got the award. 


When do you start working on the 
new record? 


Well, | haven't made any demos yet so maybe 
it's all conjecture. The songs are still swimming 
around in the miasma. Previously | was doing 
too much heroin and over-dramatising the 
whole thing which was making it hard for me 
to finish stuff, but now | feel almost ready to 
face the drama of finishing a song. I’m going 
to go to Vermont with some people from LA, 
and rent a house. Right now Martha's Vineyard 
is a little too fraught, too heroiny. | originally 
moved to Martha's because you can't bea 
junkie there because everyone knows. Well, 
now everyone knows. But we'll go up to 
Vermont. See what happens. Self-discipline is 
the thing now. 


| hear you're writing a memoir. What effect 
has that had on how you view your past? 
Has it been therapeutic? 


Not yet. It will be, | hope. If it's any kind of book, 
it will have to have gone through that phase of 
being therapeutic and pleasurable to do. But | 
don't think it's there yet. Is there stuff that still 
needs to be unlocked? Who knows? Maybe. | 
mean, l've never understood why l've never 
been able to sleep normally like other people. 
га be walking around my room all night, talking 
to imaginary fish and stuff. Every night was like 
a party for me, running around, but it always 
turns ugly. That's a tough one. Going to people's 
houses and you don't know what you're going 
to do when you fall asleep? It sucks. 


Where would you say you've been happiest 
in your life? 

The summers | spent in Biarritz, aged nine, 

11 and 13. Staying in a cháteau, going to the 
beach every day, learning to surf, topless 
women everywhere. It was amazing. 


Do you have any regrets, things that you 
wish you'd done differently? 


| don't know. I’ve always tried to live life by 
my instincts, by the butterflies in my stomach; 
whatever makes you feel scared, you should 
do. l've had good things and bad things 
happen to me but l've had a really great life, 
you know? | wanted to have an adventure and 
I've had adventures. So I'm doing something 
right, | guess. 


MOJO 31 





ctorial Press Ltd/Alam 


P 


Ronnie Spector 1943 - 2022 


Loved alike by Beatles and 
Ramones, RONNIE SPECTOR’ voice 
rings through the ages. But the guts 
she had to survive persecution by 
her husband Phil is even more 
extraordinary. Since her death 
in January, her records and her 
story speak louder than ever, in 
defiance of those who would shackle 


her. “She was a free spirit," 


discovers SYLVIE SIMMONS. 


| HE VOICE, THAT'S WHAT IT WAS ABOUT. A 
| girl's voice, young, unschooled, rough around the 
edges, that sounded like nobody else. It had pow- 
er and urgency but there was also that quiver that 
encompassed the entire range of teenage emotion: 
longing, lust and love. Ronnie Spector's voice de- 
manded attention. It could cut through every- 
thing, Phil Spector's wall of sound included, and 
tear you inside-out. In the summer of 1963 when 
The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, driving with his 
girlfriend, heard her for the first time on his car 
radio, he was so overwhelmed he had to pull over. 
The song was Be My Baby. “My favourite song,” Wilson says. “I love 
her voice so much." Ronnie's recent death, aged 78, “just breaks 
my heart", he says, too bummed to add any more. 

Ronnie wasn't the first of the girl group singers but she was the 
first we knew by name. And by sight. The Ronettes — Ronnie, her 
big sister Estelle and cousin Nedra Talley — had the look to go with 
their sound. The matching tight slinky dresses with a slit cut down 
the side so they could dance. Those 10-inch high beehives. *The 
original bad girls of rock’n’roll,” Joey Ramone called them. 

Veronica Bennett was born in New York City in 1943, her moth- 
er Beatrice half Cherokee, half African-American, her father Louis 
Irish. A big family — six aunts, seven uncles, various cousins and a 
9 —— ——— strict grandmother in a couple of small 
apartments. The girls weren't allowed 
to hang out on the streets so they 
played on the roof. But growing up in 
Spanish Harlem in the '50s, there was 





The Ronettes: (from left) 
Ronnie Spector, Estelle 
Bennett and Nedra Talley in 
1967. "The original bad girls 
of rock'n'roll", according 

to Joey Ramone. 





no way to miss all the new music and dances going on below. 

Her first musical love was Frankie Lymon. She was 12 when she 
heard him on her grandmother's radio singing Why Do Fools Fall 
In Love (1956) with his group The Teenagers. Lymon was from 





Harlem too, a year older than Ronnie. That year Ronnie started 
singing, trying to copy everything about Lymon: his phrasing, his 
piercing voice. The first concert she went to was Frankie Lymon. 
(Later, invited by her mother to Ronnie's 13th birthday party, the 
troubled singer would turn up two weeks late, drunk, and make a 
pass at her.) 

With Estelle and Nedra, Ronnie debuted on-stage at Harlem's 
illustrious Apollo Theater — Amateur Night. They didn't win, but 
they weren't disheartened. Anywhere Ronnie could find for them 
to sing and dance, they sang and danced. In their matching dresses 
and towering hair, they'd wait in line outside the Peppermint 
Lounge on West 45th St — the hottest night club in New York City 
— until one night, mistaken for performers, they were ushered in- 
side and on-stage. “And there was [Starliters singer] Joey Dee,” 
Ronnie recalled. “We started out dancing and then I got hold of a 
microphone, I couldn't resist." 

Through Dee they met rock'n'roll DJ Murray The K. He had a 
regular night at the Fox Theatre in Brooklyn and gave them the 
singing-dancing house band job. Ronnie speculated that one of 
those shows was likely where Phil Spector first set eyes on them, 
scouting for singers for his Philles label. 

The first two singles credited to The Ronettes were released on 
Colpix in 1962 (following a brace as Ronnie & The Relatives). They 
flopped. Meanwhile, Spector's Crystals were on fire, scoring a Bill- 
board Number 1 with He's A Rebel that November. The day after 
calling Spector's office and asking for an audition, The Ronettes 
were at Mira Sound Studios. Spector, sitting at the piano, told them 
to sing some songs they knew from the radio. They started with 
Why Do Fools Fall In Love. *Phil told us to stop," Ronnie recalled. 
He said, *That is the voice I've been looking for." 


not The Ronettes, who obsessed Spector. He tried to sign 
her on a solo deal but her mother said it was all three girls 
or nothing. "About six months later," said Ronnie, *we had a 
Number 1 record." > 


V OICE, SINGULAR. FROM THE START IT WAS RONNIE, 


MOJO 33 


< | For The Ronettes’ 
debut single, Spector had 
considered a version of The 
Twist before selecting a 
song by Brill Building part- 
nership Ellie Greenwich 
and husband Jeff Barry. 
Spector gave himself a co- 
writing credit, because to 
Spector the record was his. 
His work of art. All the rest 
— the songwriters, singers 


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paint Or erase. 
Be My Baby, released in ^v VERONICA 


the sultry summer of 1963, was a masterpiece. ege. 


A symphony of drums, guitars, basses, pianos, 
strings, percussion, horns and backing singers 
(including Cher, making her recording debut). 
And soaring over the top of them, entirely 
uncowed by the density and volume, was 
Ronnie Bennett's vocal. The single shot to 
Number 2 in the US charts (kept off the top by 
My Boyfriend's Back, by another girl group, | 
New Jersey's The Angels). It remains one of the 
greatest American pop records of all time. 

That same year Phil released a Christmas album, 
A Christmas Gift For You From Philles Records (1963), 
featuring 13 songs by Philles' artists, three by The 
Ronettes (Frosty The Snowman; Sleigh Ride; I Saw 
Mommy Kissing Santa Claus). His seasonal opus 
took months to make — Ronnie remembers 
sleeping in the studio as he worked long into 
the night demanding take after take — but the 
timing of the release couldn't have been worse: 
November 22, the day of JFK's assassination. 
Nearly 60 years later it's hard to imagine a time 


Ronnie S 
And The E Street B. 


it won't be considered a classic. Arguably, it also 
represented Peak Girl Group. 

In November '63, Philles released Baby, I 
Love You, followed in 1964 by (The Best Part 
Of) Breakin’ Up, Do I Love You? and Walking 
In The Rain. Each was its own ecstatic Spector 
symphony with Ronnie towering above, but 
each would peak progressively lower in the 
charts. An album, Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes 
Featuring Veronica, came in November. It compiled the 
group's singles to date and a handful of new cuts, including a love 
song Spector wrote for Ronnie, When I Saw You. Although Spector 
was married — to Annette Merar, an earlier protégée — he and 


| (From top) The 


Î the latest news, 


Ronnie had become intimate. Ronnie’s problems had just begun. 

The golden age of the American girl groups lost its glow with the 
arrival of The Beatles and the Stones — boy bands who wrote and 
played their own songs but were also diehard Ronnie fans. Friends 
too, or as much as feasible since Spector barely let Ronnie leave his 
side. When The Ronettes toured the UK in '64, the Stones opening, 
Spector telegrammed Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to in- 
struct him to keep them away from his girls (the edict was ignored 
by Keith Richards; he claims he and Ronnie fell in love on that tour) 
then flew to the UK to keep them under closer surveillance. 

In 1966 The Ronettes were booked to tour with The Beatles. 
Spector, insanely jealous, wouldn’t let Ronnie go, and replaced her 
with another cousin. In 1967, their career stymied by the man 
who’d launched them, the trio broke up. The year after, Spector, 
divorced since 1966, married Ronnie in Beverly Hills City Hall. He 
had bought a 23-room mansion in LA for them to live in — the 
“mausoleum” she would call it, though she looked forward to 


Getty (2) 


working closely with her new husband on her solo career. Then 


$4 MOJO 





TOMES | 


Nb к nin рашы, mi F^ 


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wm moren 





Xy Guodbye To Ho ly wood" / "Bal w Please Don't Go" 


Ronettes check out 


London, 1964; a selec- 
tion of Ronnie gems. 


Spector told her that he didn’t 
want a wife with a career. She 
was not allowed even to sing in 
the house, except The Ron- 
ettes’ beautiful 1965 flop Born 
To Be Together, which he 
insisted she sang to him every 
night. “I was brainwashed,” she 
told MOJO’s Lois Wilson in 
2015. “I couldn’t see what he 
was doing to me.” 

Her life was increasingly 
restricted. She had a car for a 
while but had to drive with a 
life-size inflatable Phil Spector 
in the passenger seat. After the 
Manson killings in 1969, what 
was already a prison became a fortress: floodlights, 
barbed wire, guard dogs, electrified fences. When 
Spector went out to work, he locked her in. Unsur- 
prisingly, Ronnie turned to drink, but Spector pulled 
her out of Alcoholics Anonymous, obsessed that she’d 
meet a man and leave him. In the mansion basement 
he installed a glass coffin to remind her what 
would happen if she did. But after seven years, 
Ronnie escaped, barefoot, into a getaway car 
driven by her mother. 

In January 2021, when it was announced that 
Phil Spector had died while serving a sentence of 
19 years to life for killing actress Lana Clarkson, 
Ronnie posted: “Meeting him and falling in love 
was like a fairy tale. I loved him madly, and gave 
my heart and soul to him... He was a brilliant 
producer, but a lousy husband.” 

t. After the divorce, Ronnie kept her married 

b { name. As with Tina Turner, another artist abused 

by her partner, it was the name she was known 

by as a singer. What she wanted to do now more than 
anything was get back to work. 


éé E WAS 12 WHEN BE MY BABY WENT TO 

| Number 2,” Steven Van Zandt tells MOJO. “It 

was summer '63. Those girl group songs always 
remind me of summer.” 

Van Zandt was reminded again 10 years later 
when Martin Scorsese invited him and Bruce Spring- 
steen, another girl group fanatic, to a screening of his 
new movie Mean Streets. Be My Baby was the song over the 


opening credits. 

“Groups like The Ronettes were pioneers,” says Van Zandt. “It 
was ironic — and the great injustice of rock history — that those 
groups, who had influenced the British Invasion, were put out of 
work by the British Invasion in the prime of their lives. I was very 
conscious of some sort of gratitude mixed with guilt that these 
heroes — the reason why we were all playing rock’n’roll — were no 
longer appreciated.” 

It wasn’t an easy time for the E Street Band, either. Springsteen 
was trying to change managers, freezing their recording careers, 
when Steve Popovich — the head of A&R at Epic — came up with an 
idea. He told Van Zandt, “There’s a song Billy Joel has written, Say 
Goodbye То Hollywood, a tribute to The Ronettes and those Phil 
Spector records. Why don't we do it with the E Street Band? I'll pay 
everybody double or triple scale for two songs and that will hold you 
for a while." Van Zandt wrote the B-side. "And it became," he says, 
“the first Ronnie Spector And The E Street Band record.” 

But it took Ronnie a while to get used to being back in the busi- 
ness. “She was very nervous," Van Zandt recalls, “with good reason. 
We were total strangers. And her confidence had been completely 
destroyed by Phil. If we hadn’t called, you know, that might have 
been the end.” > 


Ronnie Spector 


—— La aoe Te 
А Morar rs 


Going solo: Ronnie Spector 
and ever-present “lousy 
husband” Phil, Gold Star 
Studios, Los Angeles, 1968. 


کے 


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Af 


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X T “Tender and intense”: 


41 Ronnie on-stage at Tuts 


^ s nightclub, Chicago, 


April 28, 1981. 











FIVE STELLAR RONNIE SPECTOR 
PERFORMANCES, BY LOIS WILSON 







RONNIE & THE 
RELATIVES 


I WANT A BOY 
(Colpix single, 1961) 
The Ronettes 
recorded four singles 
for Colpix before 
hooking up with Phil 
Spector, all typical Brill 
Building fare, with the pick 
their debut! Want A Boy, which 

has Ronnie, then just 16 years of age 
but with vocal essence already 
refined, navigating the vagaries of 
teenage romance. 


THE RONETTES 


BE MY BABY 

(Philles single, 1963) 

Written by Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry 
and Phil Spector, and featuring 
Cher’s first appearance on record as 
backing vocalist. The Ronettes’ wall 
of sound debut is pure pop 
spectacle, from that fabulous kick 
drum opening to its fade-out ending 
and Ronnie’s street-vocal, both 
tender and intense, centre-stage. 


RONNIE SPECTOR 


TRY SOME, BUY SOME 
(Apple single, 1971) 

Ronnie’s cover of George Harrison’s 
All Things Must Pass off-cut, 
recorded in Abbey Road with a crack 








studio band including 
Leon Russell. 
Co-produced by 
Harrison for an 
| album that never 
was, it's a rarified 
beautyanda 
| glimpse into what 
` might have been: 
Ronnie's voice, 
both seductive 
and yearning, set 
against sweeping orchestra and 

choir. Majestic. 
SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY 
YOU MEAN SO 

MUCH 10 МЕ (Epic, 1976) 
Afootnotein 
Springsteen lore: he 
pennedthe song; 
! Steven Van Zandt 
Y" ™ . produced. But more 
ALLEE importantly, this is 
the moment Ronnie, freed from 
emotional and literal imprisonment 
by Phil, regains herfull confidence 
and self-belief, never sounding so 
gleefully whole as she trades lines 


with John Lyon over a wall of Jersey 
Shore soul. 


RONNIE SPECTOR 


YOU CANT PUT 

YOUR ARMS AROUND 

A MEMORY 

(from She Talks To Rainbows EP, kill 
Rock Stars/Creation, 1999) 


After a decade under 
| the radar, Ronnie 
returns with fan 

boy Joey Ramone 
for an EP of covers 
including this 
Johnny Thunders number. Thunders 
was another huge Ronnie fan and the 
song, heart-wrenching in his hands, 
becomes more so in hers: a palpable 
emotional breakdown followed by 
an ascent towards redemption. 





<< Her voice sounded different too. “I had Bruce at the session 
and I said, Man, something’s not quite right. We were trying to 
analyse it and we fınally realised what it was. She had stopped using 
the famous vibrato the way she used to. So she was sort of reintro- 
ducing herself to her old voice.” 

She was still not quite over her alcohol problems. But ‘Southside 
Johnny’ Lyon — whose debut album with the Asbury Jukes Van Zandt 
was producing — “was in a similar place”, says the guitarist. “So we 
had them both go on the wagon and they toured together for a while. 
She got back on-stage and stayed there for the next 45 years.” 

Say Goodbye 1o Hollywood was released on Epic in 1977. The 
sleeve shot shows Ronnie Spector surrounded by Springsteen’s 
smiling musicians, and for good reason. After inspiring an impor- 
tant aspect of their sound in the fırst place, Ronnie Spector had kept 
the E Street Band from breaking up. 


ONNIE AND PHIL DIVORCED IN 1974. IT WAS AN UGLY 
business — he threatened her with a hitman — and he was still 
doing his best to kill her career. When Ronnie tried to sing one 
of her classic songs, he'd send lawyers to stop her. Meanwhile, he 
refused to cough up her record royalties until she sued him and won. 

Meanwhile, she was working on her debut solo album — this time 
with a female producer. 

Genya Ravan and Ronnie Spector had a lot in common. In the 
early '60s, when Ronnie And The Relatives were regulars at the 
Peppermint Lounge in NYC, Ravan — AKA Goldie, founder and 
frontwoman of the girl group Goldie & The Gingerbreads — were at 
the Lollipop Lounge in Brooklyn. Both groups toured with the 
Stones in '64, and broke up in '67, but their lead singers had each 
followed a different path. 

Post-Gingerbreads, Ravan released a number of solo records in 
different incarnations, not always what the major labels wanted. 
The CBGB’s punk scene was more to her taste. She produced the 
Dead Boys’ debut, Young, Loud And Snotty, and now she wanted to 
produce Ronnie Spector. She'd always loved her voice but wanted 
to hear it on material that was more contemporary. “1 needed her 
to come into the light," says Ravan today. 

In her apartment on 57th Street in Manhattan she sang and played 
some of the songs to Ronnie. “She started to sing along with it and 
my hair stood up like I had my finger in an electric socket. Hearing 
that voice in my living room just about stunned the hell out of me." 

The musicians Ravan chose to play on it were the downtown 
punks. “I grabbed Ronnie and took her down to CBGB’s. I wanted 
her to feel what was happening, to put her finger on the pulse of it." 
Members of the Dead Boys, Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers and 
Mink DeVille contributed on various tracks, but it was clear who 
was the star. 

“Ronnie killed it,” says Ravan. “She was fast; so easy to work 
with. She was Ronnie. There was her voice. And she was amazing.” 
In her 1990 memoir, Be My Baby, Spector called Ravan “a strong 
producer who knew what she wanted, just like Phil”. Siren, a fine 
album of hard-edged performances, was released in 1980. 

Yet Phil continued to interfere. He phoned Ravan and said he 
wanted to co-produce. “I said no. He could not believe I said no. 
He sent a car for me, said he was staying in a fancy hotel on the East 
side. Everybody said, “Ве careful,’ but I went over there." Phil ha- 
rangued her: **What are you? A singer or a producer?’ I just said, 
Wake up and smell the roses. Today a chick singer can be a pro- 
ducer if she wants to be.” Spector continued to call her home and 
leave weird messages. Ravan changed her phone number. 

Rebuilding Ronnie Spector’s career was posing more than the 
usual challenges. People were scared of Phil Spector or didn’t want 
the harassment that could come with giving Ronnie a job. But she 
always seemed upbeat and warm. And there was some good news. 
In 1982 she remarried. Jonathan Greenfield remained her husband 
and manager to the end. And in 1986 she was back in the US Top 5 
as the featured singer on the Eddie Money hit Take Me Home 
Tonight. Getting away with tucking in a snippet of Be My Baby must 
have added to the satisfaction. 


Getty (4), Tom Sheehan 





p 


HE END OF THE 20IH 
| century found Ronnie Spector 

back with the punks. After all, 
there was a lot that the girl groups and 
the punk scene shared. Both were 
based on the sound of the street. The 
records had an urgency, cut and re- 
leased quickly on indie labels. And 
both diversified how a rock’n’roll 
band should look, empowering man 
more female musicians and singers. 
In 1999 Ronnie recorded an EP with 
Joey Ramone. 

Ronnie knew who Joey was; she’d heard the 
recording he made of Baby, I Love You in 1980. 

Her husband found a song of Joey’s called She Talks To 
Rainbows, and Ronnie wanted to record it. Phone calls were made 
and Ronnie met up with Joey and producer Daniel Rey. 

So they sat around, listening to songs, choosing which they 
would cover, and decided on five. Two of them were classic Ronnie 
— Don’t Worry Baby, the song Brian Wilson wrote for her; I Wish I 
Never Saw The Sunshine, a Greenwich-Barry-Spector song. The 
other three: Johnny Thunders’ You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A 
Memory; and two Joey songs, She Talks То Rainbows and Bye Bye 
Baby. That last one they sang as a duet. “Joey has this natural 
sound,” she said. “He’s like me, he doesn’t rehearse things, he just 
sings.” “Ronnie,” Joey said, “is just Ronnie. A free spirit.” 

The EP was released in punk rock/girl-group style on an indie 
label, Kill Rock Stars. Ronnie would return to the world of punk in 
2003 to sing with Jerry Only on the Misfits’ album Project 1950 
(2003) — 21st century takes on classic mid-20th century songs. It 
was manager/producer John Cafiero’s suggestion. “I loved the idea 
and encouraged him,” Only tells MOJO, “but it seemed almost 
beyond the realm of possibility to me at the time. For me, Ronnie 
was a rock'n'roll crush from back when I was a kid.” 


7 “THERONETIES @ 
WERE PIONEERS. IT 
WAS THE GREAT INJUSTICE 
OF ROCK HISTORY THAT 
THEY WERE PUT OUT OF 
WORK IN THE PRIME 
OF THEIR LIVES.” 


Steven Van Zandt 








The sound of the street: (clockwise from left) 
Ronnie sees red, 1978; with super-fan 
and collaborator Joey Ramone, 1999; 

bringing her songs and stories tour to 

the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 
March 9, 2014; The Ronettes, with Keith 
Richards, get inducted into the Rock 
and Roll Hall of Fame, 2007. 


When Cafiero told him that Spector 
had agreed and confirmed, Only was 
amazed. “On the day of the session, when 

Ronnie walked in the door, I couldn’t be- 

lieve it was actually happening. It was like an 
out-of-body experience, like a dream.” 

There were two more Ronnie solo albums, 

each of them — like the concept of Project 1950 — 

playing on the idea of bringing the past into the pre- 

sent. Last Of The Rock Stars (2006) featured guests including 

Patti Smith, Joey Ramone and Keith Richards. On English Heart 

(2016) she lent her extraordinary voice to British pop and rock 

songs from the '60s. And in December 2021, days before her death, 

The Ronettes were back in the US Top 10: their 1963 recording of 

Sleigh Ride from A Christmas Gift For You. 

And in 2007, The Ronettes had finally, belatedly, been inducted 
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Keith Richards climbed onto 
the podium to give the speech — open shirt, big grin, cigarette be- 
tween his teeth. He recalled a night in 1964 in a dark, dank little 
theatre in England when The Ronettes were at their peak and the 
Stones their opening band. He'd come out of their tiny dressing 
room and into the corridor and he could hear *these beautiful little 
chants, Estelle and Nedra, and then that pure voice over the top." 

They were singing Be My Baby. 

^I gota Command Performance to myself," said Richards. "And 
I realised that they could sing all the way through the wall of sound. 
They didn't need anything. They touched my heart right there and 
then and they touch it still." 3 


MOJO 37 


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Getting in on the... 

Yard Act: (from left) 
James Smith, Sam 
Shipstone, Ryan Needham 
and Jay Russell, North 17 
Studios, Tottenham Hale, 
December 10, 2021. 











An endearing hotchpotch 
of homespun grooves and 
mordant Northern wit, 
are Britain’s 
busiest buzz band. 

But can they compete 
in the big leagues while 
still keeping it DIY? 
“What we've realised," 
they tell 
, is that we 
can have it both ways." 























Photography by 


OU LEARN A LOT PLAYING TO EMPTY ROOMS," SAYS 

G G James Smith, the bespectacled singer of Yard Act. “You learn 
that you don't want to go back to them." 

Smith is reflecting on his Leeds-based group's unlikely 

transformation into one of 2022's most hotly tipped, with a 

debut long-player, The Overload, that's best described as Arctic 


Monkeys meet Sleaford Mods — their driving grooves a robust 





platform for Smith's wry postcards from a Britain mired in disappointments big and small. It's 
a world-view hard-baked by the 10 years Smith served with noise-rockers Post War Glamour 
Girls, the appeal of whom might be described as selective. "Although we had a pretty strong 
following in Wakefield," he deadpans. 

2019 was the low-point for Yard Act's two prime movers. That winter, Smith, recently mar- 
ried but at a loose end musically, loaned his spare room to bassist Ryan Needham, erstwhile 
driving force behind boy-girl noise-poppers Menace Beach, whose run of three 2010s albums 
for London indie Memphis Industries had also just dried up. 

Smith had led Post War Glamour Girls as a blood-and-thunder rock howler through four 
LPs but found he *couldn't keep up the anger that that band required". That year, he'd started 
up a straight-down-the-line alt-country band called Cruel World. It could hardly have been 
further from where he's ended up. 

“I was into classic, Glen Campbell-style songwriting, and I almost didn't want my personal- 
ity in there,” he explains, “just this ‘blankist’ image of the vessel for The Song.” 

N YARD АСТ, BY CONTRAST, SMITH’S PERSONALITY IS THE MAIN EVENT. 
] Raincoat-clad, he commands the stage with а dry charisma that's drawn favourable com- 

parisons with Jarvis Cocker and Mark E Smith (he's actually from the Fall singer's hated 8 
Cheshire). Back then, though, he was struggling to find a voice, one that connected anyway. It x 
was only when his lodger started looping basslines and drum patterns that he discovered >> & 


MOJO 39 





Acting up: (clockwise) 
Yard Act on-stage at The 
Stag’s Head, east London, 
November 9, 2021; Smith 
and his thousand-Yard 
stare; debut single and 
LP The Overload. 





Jamie Macmillan, Phoebe Fox, Camera Press, Avalon (2) 


{ in 
LY a ا‎ Ms 


"I QUITE LIKE PEOPLE. 


WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?" 


< one, adding vocals to Needham's tracks 
in a more declamatory, spoken style. *When 
the music is that bare-bones," he reasons, 
*you're more connected to the rhythm — not 
far off rapping." 

Smith admits he'd followed Sleaford Mods 
since the release of 2013's Austerity 
Dogs, drawn to its artwork's echo of 
Beastie Boys’ Check Your Head, and 
there's a clear parallel between the core 
partnership of Needham and Smith in 
Yard Act, and in Sleaford Mods, where 
Andrew Fearn’s backing tracks 
unlocked a creative door for Jason 
Williamson, who'd likewise been plug- 
ging away fruitlessly in guitar bands, 
including post-Britpoppers Meat Pie. 

The first song Smith and Needham 
came up with was The Trapper’s Pelts, 
in which, against Fall-ishly lumbering backing, Smith satirised 
today's cut-throat gig economy via a picaresque fable where the 
narrator buys discounted furs off a trapper, makes a mint selling 
them down the local market, but ultimately feels *enawing guilt" as 
his underpaid supplier is left “shivering, naked and alone". 

In early 2020, the duo played their first shows as Yard Act, and 
dropped The Trapper’s Рей into a set of the “Guided By Voices 
lo-fi rip-offs" they'd concurrently been hatching, with bonus mates 
on drums and guitar. 

The latter pair quit when Fixer Upper, a prospective B-side for 
a Irapper's Pelts 7-inch, came back from remixing by Sheffield pro- 
ducer Ross Orton with *this beefy 808 drum machine pounding 
away under it" — too electronic for them. Smith's lyric told of an 
upwardly-mobile Everybloke called Graham, who spouts casual 
xenophobia and ruins his street with needless rebuilding and 


e 


poundshop terracotta frogs everywhere", and this unforgettable 


40 MOJO 












slice of aural portraiture duly landed on BBC 6 


Music — connection made, at last. 

Graham, says Smith today, is a composite 
character, based on *kids from the football team's dads, 
someone who lived down the street when I was young, 
an uncle who isn't my favourite uncle, and just people 
in the pub. (Pause) That type of man comes fully formed 
without being based on one person... and he lives with 
me now." 

Two years on, Smith's observational wit has publish- 
ing houses clamouring over a 50,000-word novella he's 
written, with the trapper as the main character, and 
cameos from Graham and a vicious pub landlord from The 
Overload's title track, called Fat Andy. 

“I was trying to write a short story for the second 7-inch 
sleeve,” Smith reveals, “to embellish those first four songs, and 
it just sprawled. Now my agent's saying, ‘It doesn't all have to be 


connected to Yard Act. You can be a writer in your own right.” 


y S MITH’S EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD BEGAN 
\ іп Lymm, а leafy riverside village on the outskirts of 

Warrington. His dad worked in a supermarket, his 
mum as a child-minder, and they lived *on a council estate at the far 
end of town". 

He had а drum kit in his teens, but had more aspirations towards 
animation, which is why the debut album by Damon Albarn's Gorillaz 
was his listening epiphany — “hip-hop, punk, funk, folk, Latin music 
and dub reggae all being drip-fed to me through cartoon monkeys". 

At college age, he moved to Leeds to do a music production 
degree, where he met the other members of Post War Glamour 
Girls. Rather like Dublin and Melbourne, two cities which have bred 
successful indie scenes in recent years, Leeds has its own self- 
sufficient DIY culture, largely oblivious to mainstream acceptance. 
DIY certainly describes the duo recordings Smith and Needham 
made during the pandemic's first lockdown as they pinged music and 
vocals back and forth (“It was the polar opposite of writing in other 
bands I’ve been in,” says Needham, “a lot faster and freer”). And 
once lockdown lifted in summer 2020 they shifted into higher gear, 








Smith clocking off as a one-to-one carer for a 


teenager with special needs and spending the 


Close encounters: (clockwise from 
left) James Smith fronts Post War 
Glamour Girls, with bassist Alice 
Scott, at Castle Hotel, Manchester, 
November 14, 2013; Yard Act fix up 
Brighton’s Chalk, November 6, 2021; 
Menace Beach, with Ryan Needham 
(left), at Leeds Met, May 6, 2014. 





GARDEN 


Four albums 
that inspire 


Yard Act, as told 
to Andrew Perry. 


More Specials 
(2 Tone, 1980) 





2o 





without being on-the-nose, 
it’s funny without telling 
you it’s doing a joke, and it's 


sounding disjointed.” 


Elastica 


©, James Smith: 
“The Specials are 
areally important 
14 band to me. The 


ы - debutis incredible, 
T butlreturn to More 


Specials, uh, more. It’s political 


sonically eclectic without ever 


ends up turning the microscope on himself. 
“I started to wonder where their lives had gone. 
I felt so far away from that world and that part of 
my life. I took my wife Lynsey back to see where 
I'd grown up, and all the houses on our street 
had been gentrified. I began to appreciate how 
much that place had shaped me, and how lucky I 
was to grow up there, as it was." 

Album closer 10096 Endurance provides an 
emotional, spirits-lifting finale, very similar to 
Stay Positive on The Streets' Original Pirate Mate- 
rial — another Yard Act touchstone. *Overall, m 
an optimist," Smith concludes, blushing slightly, 
“and I quite like people. I am trying to find a bit 
of fucking enlightenment and purpose. What are 
we doing here? What is the meaning of life? I like 
chasing those questions." 


T LONDON'S LEXINGTON VENUE 


ае 1995) 


Ryan Needham: 
“| always go back 

| tothisalbumasa 

| reminder of how 

| importantleaving 


evening at the print studio where Needham recently, MOJO watched the all-new 


worked, voicing tracks in the back room. four-piece Yard Act come into their 


The bulk of The Overload is based around those own. On the mike, Smith, hyperactive and mag- 


self-recordings, with producer Ali Chant fleshing 
them out first at his Bristol studio in January 
2021 (“It was work, technically,” grins Smith), 
then finishing off up in Leeds with Sam 
Shipstone, a refugee from recently demised 
psych-rockers Hookworms, on guitar, and Smith 
himself providing ‘real’ drums where required. 

On first listen, it's the record's withering 
character pieces that stand out, evoking not only 
Alex Turner in early Arctic Monkeys, but vintage 
Ray Davies circa The Kinks’ 1979 recessionary 
romp, Low Budget. Second track Dead Horse is, 
Smith admits, “the Brexit song, about the rose- 
tinted-glasses view of Ye Olde England", which 
in the process memorably imagines *knobheads 
morris-dancing to Sham 69". 

“I feel a bit snide about that now,” he says, 
“because Sham had trouble with the National 
Front taking over their band... (smirks unrepent- 
antly) It's a throwaway gag." 

The LP's concluding numbers, however, shift 
towards a more reflective mood. 

“By track nine,” Smith explains, *you've hit 
the peak of how long you can listen to me sniping 
and playing the snarky finger-pointer. I knew 
that for the album to outlast this moment we're 
in as a country, it needed an ending that opens 
doors for Yard Act's future, and says more about 
me than I've given away so far." 

Consequently, Tall Poppies starts off lam- 
pooning a post-millennial reincarnation of The 
Kinks’ David Watts — “those guys who peak early 
and have their prime in high school" — but Smith 





is. Also, the basslines are all 
amazing and the songs are all 


incredible. The Incident [off Yard 


Act's The Overload] is my best 
Annie Holland impression." 


Think Tank 
Malt eii 2003) 
| Jay Russell: 


l've always 
admired the 





mmt and mixed.Ithink 
without Coxon on this record, 


they had more spaceto play with. 
Theresultis something pretty 


differentto anything they'd 
done before. You can hear 
where Albarn's head wasat 


thetime, given where he went 


with Gorillaz." 


Primary Colours 
(Aarght!, 2008) 


[7] SamShipstone: 


"The pumped 
garage-rock 


guitars werea 
spiritual influence 


for me on this 


record: trying to get jacked up 


while recording into a laptop 
because of lockdowns. Which 


space in songs 


“Ilove this album 
foralotof reasons, 


way it's arranged, 


netic, quipped that they were “not just Steve 
Lamacq" — namechecking BBC radio's peren- 
nial alt-music champion but suggesting, 
hopefully perhaps, that their destiny lies outside 
the UK's indie ghetto. With new drummer Jay 
Russell adding propulsive power to Needham's 
basslines, and Shipstone doodling on top like 
James Brown's Jimmy Nolen, they were instant- 
ly connective. Robust and undeniable on-stage; 
spontaneous and playful on record — still a DIY 
bedroom construct: Yard Act are two bands for 
the price of one. 

“What we've realised," Smith beams, “is that 
we can have it both ways. Me and Ryan get a kick 
out of writing and recording at home. I'm not sat 
on my arse in a practice room for three hours 
while the band are jamming." 

On Album No. 2, they plan to experiment 
further, maybe try recording with Jay's dad, 
thrash-metal producer Russ Russell (signature 
clients: Napalm Death). Says Smith, *We're 
thinking Beastie Boys: some raw live tracks, 
some tracks editing and looping the band, some 
tracks based on me and Ryan at home." 

Having brought positive energy into his own 
career, Yard Act's portraitist extraordinaire looks 
forward to revisiting his Fixer Upper character. 
“Maybe Graham’s hip niece came back from 
art college at Christmas with some new 
opinions," Smith speculates, *and he'll take 
them on board?" 

As Yard Act's story so far seems to suggest, 
stranger things have happened. 


Way To Go gave me confidence 
that a rich G chord can keep your 
attention, sol used it to oblivion 


on our track Tall Poppies.” MOJO 41 


VICTORE 
9 | | | | 


42 MOJO 











ANTANA! SANTANA!” 

It’s May 1971 and Karen Dalton is playing the biggest 
venues of her career, opening for Santana across Europe 
as they scale their commercial peak. Organised by Wood- 
stock promoter Michael Lang, who has signed Dalton to 
his new record label, Just Sunshine, for her second al- 
bum, In My Own Time, the tour is a disastrous mismatch. 
Having started out passing the basket in Greenwich Vil- 
lage coffeehouses alongside Bob Dylan and Fred Neil, 
Dalton prefers long, hazy living-room jams. On the big 
stage, her tarnished-silver voice cannot cut through the impatient chants of audi- 
ences expecting a different kind of Black Magic Woman. 

“Her performance style was very introspective,” recalls guitarist Dan Hankin, 
who played on both her albums and in her make-or-break touring band. “She was 
more of a person who said, ‘Here’s what I have, take it or leave it.’ In a coffeehouse, 
maybe that would work, you know? But in a huge concert hall filled with young 
people who had no idea who Karen Dalton was? I don’t think they had any idea of 
what to make of it.” 

This is Dalton’s second chance at success after her 1969 Capitol debut, It’s So 
Hard To Tell Who’s Going To Love You The Best, but it’s already slipping away. 

What to make of Karen Dalton was not just an issue for Santana fans. When she 
died of AIDS in 1993, at the age of 55, she had not made a record for over 20 years, 
declining into obscurity, poverty and addiction. Yet in the early '60s when she first 
hit Greenwich Village’s booming folk scene, she was acclaimed by her peers. “Karen 
was like a letter from home,” Fred Neil wrote in 1969, finding both solace and 
inspiration in her voice, while in 2004's Chronicles, Bob Dylan recalled being 
struck by the *funky, lanky and sultry" Dalton, her *voice like Billie Holiday" and 
her guitar playing “like Jimmy Reed”. 

Towards the end of Dalton's life, her friend, the cosmic folk guitarist Peter 
Walker, used to reassure her she would be famous one day. *Yeah, Peter," she would 
reply in her still-detectable Oklahoma drawl. *That famous won't do me any good 
because I won't be here to enjoy it." As she said in one of the songs nobody ever 
thought she wrote: *Fate sneaks up from behind/Pretty soon it's too late." > 





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So long ago and far 
away: Karen Dalton 
= În her mountain 
| Cabin, Summerville, 
= Colorado, 1966. 


PETER WAL 





© PARI-CHEROKEE, PARI-IRISH SINGER WHO PLAYED 
A an unusually tall banjo carved from a bedpost, Karen Dalton 
| lent herself to myth. When her music started to gain belated 
attention in the mid '90s, it was assumed she had written no songs, 
given no interviews, left little in the way of photographs or tapes. 
She was, after all, supposed to have died alone on the New York 
streets, a tough place to maintain an archive. Yet as her reputation 
has grown, it's become harder to see Dalton as an ethereal dust- 
bowl heroine flitting through the frames of her life. 2007's 
Cotton Eyed Joe captured a performance at Joe Loop’s Boulder 
coffeehouse The Attic in 1962, while 2008's Green Rocky Road 
caught her playing at home on a reel-to-reel in her Colorado 
mining cabin (we even hear a brief conversation with her 
mother, Evelyn: *Did your folks let you dance?" Karen asks). 
Later, it transpired Karen had left a cache of her own songs and 
poems in the care of Walker; he allowed a handful to be 
recorded as 2015's Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs By 
Karen Dalton, Sharon Van Etten and Julia Holter among the 
artists lifting them off the page. 

Light In The Attic, meanwhile, are about to release an 
expanded 50th Anniversary version of In My Own Time, featur- 
ing previously unreleased audio from the 1971 Montreux Golden 
Rose Pop Festival and audio from German TV show Beat Club, 
which she played during the calamitous European tour. It was 
unearthed by filmmakers Robert Yapkowitz and Richard Peete, di- 
rectors of the documentary Karen Dalton: In My Own Time, along 
with holy-grail tapes from a radio interview with DJ Bob Fass. Angel 
Olsen, meanwhile, read passages from Dalton's diaries that re- 
framed her not as a tragic cipher but a wise, rueful, flesh-and-blood 
woman who wearily understood the world. *She had little resur- 
gences over the years,” says Yapkowitz. “Reissues will come out, or 
there'll be an article here and there, but she kind of always fades 
back into the shadows. So a big part of what we wanted to do was 
create something that could permanently cement her legacy." 

Even with such a solid document behind her, а sense of precari- 
ousness remains. А few months after the filmmakers visited Walker, 
a fire at his house destroyed Dalton's entire archive. If they hadn't 
been there to photograph it... *it would be gone forever," says 
Peete. “It would not exist in any form.” 


Y wy ORN IN TEXAS IN 1937, THEN RAISED IN ENID, 
В Oklahoma, Jean Karen Cariker was steeped іп folk music 
from the cradle. Her mother Evelyn was a nurse; her father 
John a welder. Dalton married for the first time aged 15 (“to some 
handsome young guy," says her third husband, fellow folk singer 
Richard Tucker) and had a son, Lee; at 17, she married a literature 
professor called Don Dalton and had her daughter, Abralyn. There 
are photographs of her in the documentary, red-lipped, insouciant, 
upswept, Rizzo from Grease with two babies on her lap. *One thing 
that cracked me up in that movie was the pictures of her as a young 
woman with bouffant hair and everything,” says Tucker. “She was 
married twice and then just decided she was going to change that. 
It didn't work for her. I don't think she ever got a haircut again." 

“I want to accept responsibility for my life,” Dalton wrote in her 
diaries. “I’m working on my own direction and destiny, not 
my mother's." 

She arrived in New York on the cusp of the '60s, viewed as an 
“authentic” voice by more middle-class contemporaries. “We were 
learning arrangements off Odetta records,” remembers Walker. 
“Odetta was the absolute genuine real McCoy and so was Karen." 

As the decade moved on and it became more common for musi- 
cians to write their own material, Dalton took pride in her interpre- 


44 MOJO 


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RARE DALION 


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tative gift. “She said to me once: 
‘People say I’m a singer. That's 
not what I am — I’m a song stylist,’” says Walker. “She would be 
rehearsing in her mind — songs, lyrics, phrasing, making love to a 
song in her imagination. If Karen was doing a song, you could bet 
she would have put in а minimum of 100 hours on how to sing it." 

Tucker, а former army trumpeter, met her in an apartment 
above the Bleecker Street Cinema and was soon playing in а trio 
with her and Tim Hardin, moving in circles that included beat poet 
Bob Kaufman, Richie Havens and Dino Valenti. At times, she was 
living with her daughter Abralyn, whom she “kidnapped” back from 
her former husband, the little girl accompanying her everywhere 
she went. Yet life in New York was tough: *poor and starving", she 
and Tucker decided to head for Boulder, Colorado, where Loop's 
coffeehouse was becoming the nexus of a new folk scene. *Use the 
time to create a new mythology," Dalton wrote astutely before the 
flight. “Grab your possibilities and make them realities.” 

A beatnik ahead of the curve, Dalton now became a proto-hippy, 
living in old mining cabins in the mountains. “We were kind of 
dropouts,” says Boulder resident Hankin. “We used to stay in the 
mountains as much as possible and we would make trips to town for 
essentials, to go shopping or to get a shower.” 

Tucker describes them as “horse hippies”: “We had a hitching 
post in our front yard. I spent a couple of years riding that one horse, 
Mamacita, all over the mountains bareback on acid and stuff.” 

He recalls going to buy their horses at a market in town, Dalton’s 
Oklahoma roots kicking in as she pointed out the best animal from 
across the meadow: “It was something about the straightness of 
their legs.” 

Hankin says Dalton was “seen as a leader” in the musical com- 
munity, a scene orientated around living-room gatherings. “She was 
kind of a central focus. So a lot of the musicians, like me, would 
come around to play with her.” 


Carl Baron/© Greenwich Entertainment 












image 


O Christian Rose/Fast 


Rock and a hard place: (clockwise from 
main) Karen Dalton at home in the 
mountains above Boulder, Colorado, 1966; 
Dalton with Bob Dylan (left) and Fred Neil 
at Café Wha? in Greenwich Village, New 
York, February 6, 1961; in Rome, April 28, 
1971, during the Santana European tour 
(front row, from left) Michael Lang, Dalton, 
John Hall, (back row) Dan Hankin, Bill Keith. 


тай анаты i 


Hardin was a frequent visitor, too, as extreme a personality as 
Dalton — although, at this stage, displaying a more obvious commit- 
ment to drugs. “When he left my house I was never sure if I'd see 
him again,” Dalton wrote in her diaries. “He’s such a terrible driver. 
He had an accident about once a week." 

It was, remembers Tucker, a happy time, but even then, Dalton 
could display worrying signs. 

“When she would drink she would change and sometimes that 
could be a kind of a very negative space that she could get into," says 
Hankin. Once, driving down off the mountain into Boulder, Dalton 
started telling him about when she and her friends *back home" 
would zoom drunkenly along country roads, knocking mailboxes 
off their posts with a baseball bat. She started to demonstrate, 
swerving all over the road just to terrify Hankin: *There was noth- 
ing I could do." 

After an argument over leaving a party one night, Hankin woke 
up to find his car wouldn't start. “1 kind of knew that she had done 
something. When I opened the hood, I saw that the distributor cap 
was torn out, you know? She tossed it into the woods. I somehow 
had to replace it. You could sometimes sense that you just don't 
cross her." 


ONG-STANDING LEGEND HAD IT DALTON NEED- 

_ED to be tricked into recording her first album, lured down 

from the Boulder mountains like а shy animal with a saucer 

of milk, the tapes left running secretly. The recordings of her radio 

interview with Fass blow that myth apart, however. “I get thrilled by 

people who make their own records,” she says in her rich, clipped 

speaking voice. “I think that's a great thing to do... I dig it. We were 

offered some free time at this little studio downtown, Blue Rock. 
I really liked it, especially for playing live, which we were doing.” 

While it’s true that Fred Neil advocated for Dalton, asking her to 

audition for Capitol producer Nick Venet, she was not unwilling. 





Hankin agrees. “It seemed to me it was totally voluntary on Karen’s 
part and I wasn’t aware of any kind of subterfuge.” 

The recording set-up was simple — Dalton, Hankin, bassist Har- 
vey Brooks, with drummer Gary Chester added later, a Colorado- 
like set-up designed to play to Dalton’s strengths. “It was essen- 
tially just the three of us face to face,” says Hankin. The album 
showcased her repertoire, veering between blues, traditional folk 
and songs by her Café Wha? cohort, including Neil’s Blues On The 
Ceiling and Hardin’s How Did The Feeling Feel To You?. 

A scattering of good reviews didn’t lead to impressive sales, but 
a second chance came when Lang turned his attention onto Dalton. 
“She could do the magic,” says Walker. “The magic thing was to sing 
a song and make other people feel as though they’re part of the 
song; take people outside of themselves for three or four or minutes 
and bring them back. Michael had the vision to see that; he spent 
$80,000 making that album, a lot of money, bringing in the best 
musicians he knew from around the country and bringing Harvey 
Brooks in as producer. It just reeked of quality.” 

Brooks, who had played on Highway 61 Revisited and Bitches 
Brew, telt Lang saw him as “somebody who could deal with excessive 
personalities” — by this time, Dalton’s drug and alcohol problems 
were escalating. 

“And it was not, you know, a weekend party,” Brooks says. “It 
was life. My job was to get her to get the best performance possible. 
She stood up and I put her in with some really good people. We had 
a great time making it but I had to stay on it, you know, I had to keep 
her away from all the bad stuff that was readily available.” 

It was too late in the day for a pure folk album. “The idea also was 
that Karen would come out with a folk rock, more poppy album,” 
says Brooks. “With her voice sounding the way it is, it made it some- 
thing that would stand out. Problem was she couldn’t promote it.” 

The versions of traditional lament Katie Cruel, chilled by Bobby 
Notkoff’s violin, and Valenti's poignant Something On Your > 


MOJO 45 


< Mind are Dalton at her peak, yet both Walker 
and Hankin suspect she was less than comfortable 
with the record. You can sense it when the chorus 
of male voices break in on How Sweet It Is, or 
when she sings When A Man Loves A Woman, 
hauntingly rendered but out of step with her old 
repertoire. Footage shot for German TV shows 
Dalton at a microphone, no guitar or banjo in her 
hand, not quite passing as one of the new breed of 
singer-songwriters. 

“Karen was able to do it consistently but was 
too fragile to exploit,” says Walker. “She would do 
it every time she performed but she was just too 
physically fragile to tour and to go to wherever the 
big money exists." 

HERE'S A POIGNANT NOTE ON THE ORIGINAL PRESS 
release for In My Own Time: “Нег next album will include 
several [songs] she's written herself." 

There was no next album. Yet in among her archive lay Mistakes 
Thus Far, a poem — or song — in which Dalton lists ways to вей- 


sabotage. “Тоо much confidence... Let yourself get distracted... 
Thinking anyone cares about you/Thinking that your youth will last 
forever/Thinking you will succeed in that effort.” 

By the early "70s, Dalton could be forgiven for thinking that ef- 
fort was exhausted. She hung out with The Holy Modal Rounders, 
escalated her drug use, and relied on social security and the refuge 


of a rent-controlled apartment in the Bronx. Walker, a paralegal for 


46 MOJO 


| Reason to believe: (clockwise 

7 from left) Karen Dalton in Europe, 
1971; performing at the Montreux 
Golden Rose Pop Festival, May 1, . Д 
1971; Tim Hardin enjoying some | i 
Boulder hospitality, with Dalton ; 
(right) and Susie Bergman. 






a taxi fleet at the time, offers insights into her pre- 
carious '80s lifestyle. ‚. 
“I remember one time she came to me and her 


hands were all black and blue," he says. *She'd been 


arrested for passing out flyers on the street for some 


restaurant. The police put her in handcuffs that 
were much too tight. She wanted to sue the city of 
New York but I had to tell her it was very ше ult to 
sue them because they have great lawyers.’ 

The idea that she *died on the streets of New York 
in abject poverty" gained traction in the early days of 
her posthumous rehabilitation: Instead, says W alker, 
the last years of her life were almost comfortable. She 
had been loaned “a rather nice home with a heated 
swimming pool” near Woodstock. “She was very 
physically fragile, but nevertheless she was still seek- 

ing out wood for her own wood stove, which is no mean feat.” (After 
she died, says Walker, “because she had AIDS, they filled in the pool 
as though it was never there.”) 

She then moved to a trailer at the end of the house’s drive where 
her son, Lee, would visit regularly. “At the end she did have an excel- 
lent quality of life but she was very distressed that her very large 
circle of friends had abandoned her,” says Walker. “She said: ‘It’s 
not my fault — people think that it’s my fault and they blame me and 
stay away from me.’ That was tough on her. She cried that day. Eve- 
rybody was afraid. It was terrible to see that. 

“On a positive note, she would say, ‘People wonder how they’re 
going to die some day; at least I know.” 










© Dan Hankin, © Christian Rose/Fastimage, © бш AE aM en 





morning I sent out cheques for her two children," he says proudly. 
“We finally collected some back royalties and cut the cheques out to 
the kids and I feel her spirit saying, ‘Good job Peter, keep it up.’ Pm 
delighted that I’m able to facilitate that help for them. At the mo- 
ment, if she's up there, she's smiling." 

In the opening shot of Karen Dalton: In My Own Time, her face 
slowly swims into view. Nearly 30 years after her death, Dalton is 
coming into focus, her story — and her music — still full of revela- 
tion. As she told Walker, fame has come too late for her to enjoy. Yet 
for all the poverty, all the grind, she seemed to intuit that success 
wasn't always about those who burned brightest — there was a rich- 
er, darker game to win. “All that shines is not truth,” she wrote in 





one of her unsung songs. “Real beauty rarely glitters, so I find." @ 






Karen Dalton's In M [у Own Time 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition 
is available on March 25 at www. lightintheattic. net. The Standard Edition 
is available now. 


DIAMONDS & DUST 


It’s а devastating combination of 
singer and song, delivered with a 
resignation that allows no room for 
hope or doubt. When she sings, 

“VIl never get out of these blues 
alive,” it feels like documentary. 


KATTE CRUEL 


(In My Own Time, Paramount, 1971) 


In his online question-and-answer 
session The Red Hand Files, Nick 
Cave picked Dalton’s uncanny 
version of this American Revolu- 
tion-era lament about a fallen 
woman as опе of his top 10 “hiding 
songs”, along with Leonard Cohen’s 
Avalanche and Big Star's Holocaust. 
The story of a “roving jewel” 

now dulled, it traces awoman’s 
dangerous path through the 

world, a ghostly yearning catching 
Dalton’s own restless life: “If I was 
where! would be/Then I'd be 
wherelam not.” 


SOMETHING ON 
YOURMIND 


(In My Own Time, Paramount, 1971) 


There’s nota whisper of space 
between singer and song on this 
beautiful rendition of Dino Valenti’s 
elegiac testament to lost time, 
fading youth and disappearing 
opportunity, a note-to-self that 
features the devastating line, 
“Didn't you see, you can’t make ії 
without ever even trying?” Dalton’s 
horn-like voice merges perfectly 
with Harvey Brooks’s autumnal 
arrangement, expertly hitting /n 
My Own Time's daring target of 
alloying her otherworldly mettle 
with a more modern pop sound. 


ARE VOU TEXVTNG 
FORTHE COUNTRY 
(In My Own Time, Paramount, 1971) 


In Karen Dalton: In Her Own Time, 
Richard Tucker says he last saw 


TTHURIS 


"^ Ble. Г | (from Cotton Eyed Joe: 
Live In Boulder 1962, 
Megaphone, 2007) 
Recorded at Joe 
Loop’s Boulder 
coffeehouse The 
Attic, this live set 
captures Dalton’s 
complete self-posses- 
sion in front of a rapt 
audience. Her former 
husband Richard 
Tucker once described heras 
playing “the slowest blues l ever 
heard in my life”: on this gorgeously 
languid interpretation of Tampa 
Red’s standard, she betrays no 
temptation to speed things up. 


NOTTINGHAM TOWN 
(from Green Rocky Road, 
Megaphone, 2008) 
|  _ Those closest to her 
describe Daltonas 
being happiest when 
playing іп а living 
room, no audience, 
no demands except 
her own. This version 
of the absurdist folk 
song was taped in 
her Colorado miner's 
cabin in 1963, letting 
you come close to 
sitting with her while 
she closes her eyes, 
picks up her banjo 
and does exactly what she wants. 
Ancient enough to sound like she 
found it behind a chimney, there’s 
also an enveloping drone-like 


KAREN DALTON 
raTtü YED Ur 


OM f 
















T 


"Pretty soon it's too late": (clockwise from above) 
Dalton performing It Hurts Me Too from It's So Hard 
To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best; friend Peter 
Walker; husband Richard Tucker. 


Walker never forgot Dalton's kindness to him 
when he was at a low ebb in the '60s: *She was 
one of the most lovely people I ever met,” he says, 
invoking her *Sweet Mother KD" nickname. He 
went to battle for her in her final days, when social services believed 
she was incapable of independent living. *She was allowed to stay in 
her own home and that's all she wanted." He pauses. “I’m not sure. 
She may have chosen the time of her death. The night before, I 
hugged her, and she seemed to have a fever and I think — m just 
theorising — that maybe she decided that all of this has gone far 
enough and it was time for her to leave. She might have taken a few 
extra pills that night or something. Or not. I don't know." 

He remembers going to meet her at her trailer 
the next morning, ready for another social services 
assessment. *She was in her bed and I didn't want to 
disturb her so I sat and watched The Price Is Right 
and then I went to wake her and I found out that she 
was gone. I think she was done with it. That was my 
feeling. She was incredibly fragile. It was like visiting 
a patient at a nursing home who didn't have that 
much time left in terms of hours. Her time had 
come and I think she knew it." 


ALTON’S TIME HAS COME IN OTHER, 
better ways since, as new generations of listeners and artists 
(Nick Cave, Angel Olsen, Adele) are drawn in by her ability 


to press a world of sorrow and grief into her voice. 





Alamy, © Greenwich Entertainment/courtesy Everett Collection (2), courtesy Light In The Attic Records 


Those who knew her 55 years ago — Dalton's whole lifetime 
away — can't quite believe her current place in the world. Tucker 
notes the increase in his twice-yearly royalties for his song Are You 
Leaving For The Country, covered by Dalton on In My Own Time. 
The other day, when he showed his local record shop staff his pho- 
tograph on the sleeve of Cotton Eyed Joe, they excitedly let him have 
his CDs for free. 

Peter Walker sees even more tangible proof of her legacy. *This 


quality hinting at newer paths. 


BEVES ON 

THE GETTING 

(It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To 
Love You The Best, Capitol, 1969) 
"She did Blues On The Ceiling (which 
is my song) with so much feeling 
thatif she told me she had written it 
herself, | would have believed her,” 
wrote Fred Neil in the high-praise 
sleevenotes to Dalton’s 1969 debut. 


Dalton when he jumped out of their 
car during arow in Denver. He tells 
MOJO, however, that he might have 
seen her once more in New York, 
when he played her this newly 
written song. It was at least partially 


inspired by their move to Colorado 
(“Leave the iron cloud behind/And 
feel the circus moving on”), but at 
her sweetest, Dalton pushes it 
beyond their shared past to hint 

at amore universal back-to-the- 
garden quest. 








TUIS] EYEWITNESS 





BUILD 
SONGS FROM 
THE BIG CHAIR 


Ex-powerpop misfits from Bath, and 
found themselves as hit-making faces in 
early- 80s synth pop. After 83 debut The Hurting, 1985 saw their 
obsession with primal scream therapy meet new drivetime sensi- 
bilities and dominate the US charts. But things had grown too 
big too fast. "With success came the shit we didn't like," recall the 
band and associates. “The dream became to become forgotten..." 


Interviews: Portrait by 


Roland Orzabal: Our first band Graduate 
[formed in Bath in 1978] was an adolescent 
attempt to be fashionable, playing Mod 
powerpop. We loved 2 Tone and The Jam, but my 
songwriting hadn't developed enough. Adjacent 
to this was the inspiration for the name Tears For 
Fears, namely Arthur Janov, a Californian 
psychologist famous for primal scream theory, 
which John Lennon did for six months. 


Curt Smith: Roland and | both came from broken 
homes, raised by our mothers. The rest of 
Graduate didn't share our inner demons, and the 
idea of writing with the depth we were now 
talking about was alien to them. 


RO: There was a massive shift in pop: Gary 
Numan was Number 1, that was literally a 
Copernican inversion. [In 1981] we met ап 
Stanley who owned a synthesizer and a home 
studio, which he allowed us to use. All ofa 
sudden, we were singing lyrics inspired by Janov 
Hurts so good: Tears and putting acoustic guitar arrangements onto 


For Fears’ Roland 
Orzabal (left) and Curt 


Smith, March 1983. David Bates: "а signed Def Leppard but | > 


synthesizer and drum machine. 


Tom 5heehnan 


MOJO 49 





Shout demons out: (clockwise) 
Smith and Orzabal in 1984, urg- 
ing to experiment; Graduate’s 
(Curt and Roland second and 
third in line, respectively) 1980 
single, a Tony Hatch co-produc- 
tion; primal therapy creator and 
TFF inspiration Arthur Janov; in 
the studio, London, April 1985. 





<< could see synth bands would become the 
sound for the ’80s. | particularly liked Tears For 
Fears’ demos, sol signed them for athree-singles 
deal. The first two, Suffer The Children and Pale 
Shelter, didn’t happen, though Peel and the 
NME championed them with comparisons to 
Joy Division. | paired them with Chris Hughes, 
who'd produced [Liverpudlian synthesists] 
Dalek | Love You, and Mad World became 

the next A-side. | figured it would be their 
breakthrough hit [it reached Number 3 in 
November 1982]. I'd picked up the option for 
an album by then, thankfully. 


RO: Instead of chasing the tail of pop, we were 
rightinthe middle, alongside The Human 
League, Depeche Mode and Eurythmics. 


DB: Of course, media support completely ebbed 
away once they had hits. 


Chris Hughes: People would take the piss out of 
= them. They had a song, Ideas As Opiates, which a 
journalist re-christened ‘Synths As Doorbells’. 


la 


CS: It’s a peculiarly British thing, because in 
America, they celebrate success. It pissed me off 
butin the long run, who cares? The biggest battle 
is leaving a studio with an album that you love. 


RO: [Debut] The Hurting was aNumber 1 album 
[in March 1983]. The record company urged us to 
keep following up singles to maintain a presence 
in the marketplace - it was saturated even then. 
Concurrent to that was our urge to experiment, 
so the next single was The Way You Are 
[December '83], a strange industrial record and 
our worst chart success since we started having 
hits. The single after, Mothers Talk [August '84], 
was in a similar vein. 


(7), courtesy David Bates, courtesy Echo Beach Management, A 


CH: They’d tried other producers, which hadn't 
worked out, solreturned [work on the album 


Getty 


50 MOJO 





began at The Wool Hall, Beckington, in 1984]. 
Roland didn'tfeel Mothers Talkhad been nailed, 
solsaid, "Let's have guitars!" Ithinkhe was 
simultaneously shocked and thrilled. 


RO: That was the beginning of what became 
Songs From The Big Chair. Away from sensitivity, 
toward a more global outlook. 


CS: Chris wasthe biggestinfluence on us 
because he opened our eyes to music we would 
otherwise not have heard or discovered 
ourselves, from Steely Dan to Springsteen to 
Robert Wyatt. 


CH: You're not expecting them to rip off things, 
it’s just encouraging good songwriters to write 
good songs, like when Stewart Copeland played 
Sting alot of reggae, and he came up with 
Roxanne. Dave also wanted the next album to 
make more sense in America, sales-wise. 


DB: Depeche Mode and other British bands had 
had college underground hits, but to break into 
the mainstream, you needed a drivetime hit, 
athree-minute song which people can nod 
theirhead or bang the wheel to asthey drive 

to and from work. Drivetime shows got the 
biggest audiences. 


CH: Both Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule 
The World hadn't been written yet - the big hope 
was Head Over Heels, and told them they 
needed more songs. Roland had played lan the 
kernel of a song, which was, "Shout, shout, let it 
all out..." Wow, stop everything, let's record this. 
lan helped write the verse, and the track got 
bigger and longer, a big, epic onslaught. 


RO: We added a Big Country guitar solo, which 
took us to another level. 


CH: After Shout, which took months to finish, 


go 4 cuu UIN ION SKS | 





"THEY WERE GOING 
TO GIVE ME 


PERSUADE ME." 








| н = = = : —  -————— a. 
owe aw * 2r. a 
| T- i id 
1 EE ; 
ығ Y d ү 
k a 
LE ] * 





TO 


Everybody Wants To Rule The World was а 
breath of fresh air. Ittook about a week to write 
and record. 


Dave Bascombe: Shout's guitar solo had an 
ironic, tongue-in-cheektwinge, and the solo at 
the end of Everybody Wants To Rule The World 
was equally the obvious way to go. But only Chris 
thoughtthat song wasn't a bitthrowaway;the 
originallyric was Everybody Wants To Go To War, 
a definitive Roland statement. 


RO: То me, Everybody Wants To Rule The World 
sounded like really throwaway pop, probably as 
close to Graduate as we'd dare go. But Dave kept 
going on about "drivetime radio". 


DB: The head of radio promo іп the US wanted 

to release Shout first, and | said it should be 
Everybody Wants To Rule The World. After ahuge 
row, he relented, but said, “I’m telling you, 
Shout’s the bigger hit,” and he was right. Both 
reached Number 1 in the US [in April and June 
1985: both were UK Top 5 hits], but Shout stayed 
there longer and sold more. Songs From The Big 
Chair ended up selling millions. 


CS: The title came from a movie, Sybil [a 1976 US 
TV film starring Sally Field], specifically the line “| 
wantto sit with you in your big chair", which was 
the place [in hertherapist's office] she felt safe. 


Will Gregory: I'd played saxophone on the 
album and joined the tour that followed [a world 
tour began in March '85 and ended in Novem- 
ber]. On the American motorways, the signs, 
rather than "Junction 18 closed - diversion", 
were flashing up "Tears For Fears!" and their 
songs were all across the FM dial. We felt this 
incredible, intoxicating whoosh. Walking out 

to the sound of 20,000 people shrieking, it's 

a lift you never forget. 


DBasc:lwasinthe studio with them in LA, and 
MTV was on, and we'd bethere alongside Duran 
and others. It was the second British invasion. 


Neil Taylor: а played the guitar solo on 
Everybody Wants To Rule The World and [Big 
Chair track] Broken but couldn't do the tour 
because of my solo deal. They asked again 
halfway through, as the guitarist wasn't working 
out, and Curt told me - maybe he was joking, but 
Ithinknot - they were going to give me £40,000 
in a briefcaseto persuade me, but eventually 
decided against it. Those massive US hits had 
clearly earned alot of money. 


КО: 1 wasn’t thinking about the money. | didn't 
mind success but І saw myself as a man ofthe 
people, іп inverted commas, no better than the 
guy queuing fortickets. All | wanted to do was 
primal therapy, to sort out whatthe hell was 
going oninside me. 


WG: 1 don’t recall talk of primal therapy on the 
tourbus. There’d been a falling out with Janov 
after the band met him, when it was suggested 
they might write [a musical] together, and Roland 
pulled the shutters down. 


CS: Nothing beats leaving a studio being really 
happy about what you've made, but success 
doesn't add to that. With success came the shit 
we didn’t like: the endless work hours, getting 
up at 7am for drivetime radio interviews, 
playing every night, being exhausted and 
away from home. 


DBasc: A lot of songs had to be played to backing 
tracks, which meant they couldn’t break out of 
the arrangement, not even speed up or slow 
down. Anyone would find it frustrating and 
boring, night after night. 


WG: [TFF manager] Paul King had this V-shaped 


сит E 
in pie за = 


lighting rig assembled, which lowered 
up and down. Roland immediately 
blew it out. But we had to use it for one 
gig, and the гід came down and down 
and ended up landing on the 
keyboards and playing these chords - 
daaanngg! - and nobody could raise it 
again, sothe gig had to be abandoned. 
It was afantastic Spinal Tap moment. 


DB:Ithinkthey toured... Big Chair for 
two years, all over. The likes of Dylan, 
it's theirlife, butfortwo young guys 
from Bath it was a lot to take on. Was | 
responsible? Partly, yes. The record 
company has a huge worldwide hit, 
then the boss says, "What's next?” The 
machine needs feeding. But the bit 
Roland and Curt liked was making 
records. With all the royalties, Roland 
converted the top floor of his house 
into a studio and now you can indulge 
yourself in any way you want. 


RO: My dream became to blend back 
into the landscape and become 
forgotten. And that’s why [1989's third 
LP] The Seeds Of Love took many years. 


DBasc: After the tour, they really 
wanted to do something different. But 
it didn't work out with the new produc- 
ers [Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley], 
so Chrisandlreturned again. But Chris 
didn'tlastthatlong, sothey finished 
the album with me. Roland wanted to 
work with top session guys, not 
machines, and lan Stanley, Roland's 
writing partner on ...Big Chair, wasn't 
that, so helefttoo. 


WG: Roland wasn't confident about his 
singing and stage presence, and he 





Roland Orzabal 
(vocals, guitar) 


Curt Smith | 
(vocals, guitar) 


Chris Hughes 
(producer) 


i f. 
b. i m о я 






E EF 
David Bates 
(Phonogram label 
A&R) 


Dave Bascombe 
(studio engineer) 


Will Gregory 
(saxophonist) 


Neil Taylor 


9 


(guitarist) 


































Carry on screaming: on-stage at 
the Montreux Golden Rose Rock 
and Pop Festival, May 11, 1985 
(from left) Curt Smith, Manny Elias, 
Roland Orzabal; (insets from top 
left) debut 45 Suffer The Children; 
breakthrough single Mad World; 
the Shout 45; million-seller Songs 
From The Big Chair. 





hoped Curt would front things, but as 
Roland's confidence grew, he wanted 
to come further forward, which 
realigned the dynamic. 


CH: People think Curt didn't do much 
but he was around, willing to help. He 
hadanintuitive sense of what worked 
and was good at setting Roland at 
ease. But eventually Curt left because 
of his lack of interest іп being in the 
studio day after day when Roland was 
following his own mind. They just lost 
their connection. 


NT: Curt told me he couldn't face 
coming back for a while, and also said 
he was nervous about going into the 
studio. | think Roland wanted to keep 
control of things, and Curt wanted to 
sing and write more. 


RO: We'd been together around 10 
years. The Beatles were roughly the 
Same age as we were, when every- 
thing fell apart, 27 or 28 - in astrology, 
it's called the Saturn Return [they 
re-formed in 2000]. 


CS: Then much later, you reach that 
age... on our last tour in 2019, we 
played Lorde's version [of Everybody 
Wants To Rule The World] before going 
on-stage and then broke into ours, and 
you seethe audiencereaction. We're 
talking aboutthree guitar notes 
played іп а certain rhythm that can 
change the mood of 20,000 people. 
Therein lies the power of music. М, 


Tears For Fears' new album The Tipping 


Point is released on February 25. They tour 
the UK in July 2022. 


MOJO 51 





CHAOTIC, INTENSE AND DISBANDED 
AT THE HEIGHT OF THEIR POWERS 
BY THEIR FREAKED-OUT MAINMAN, 
NEUTRAL MILK HOTELS CULT STATUS 
WAS INSTANTLY ASSURED. NOW A NEW 
BOOK ABOUT THE BAND AND THEIR 
ECCENTRIC ELEPHANT 6 ALLIES DIGS 
DEEPER INTO THE MYSTERY. 
“THERE WERE MOMENTS OF REAL 
BEAUTY, AND THERE WERE MOMENTS 
OF REAL DESPAIR,” DISCOVERS 
ITS AUTHOR, ADAM CLAIR. 
PHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS BILHEIMER 
a ae 
Y THE END OF 1998; NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL 
was among the most promising indie bands in the 


world. They had performed nearly 100 times that 


year, across the United States and 10 other coun- 


‘ei 


EMB.—— tries. Tickets sold well, and those who stuck around 
= = long enough — they were not an especially punctual 

WENN band and often took the stage hours after their 
into a legend: a singular band at its peak, a transcendent, you-just- 
had-to-be-there, too-bad-you-weren’t performance. Many report 
having been moved to tears. A&R reps from major record labels took 





listed set time — eventually turned what they saw 


notice, too, and had begun sniffing around. 


Led by Jeff Mangum (guitar, voice) and comprising Jeremy Barnes 





52 MOJO 





(drums), Scott Spillane (guitar, brass) and Julian Koster (accordion, 
saw, etc), plus supporting members including Laura Carter and 
Robbie Cucchiaro, the band were touring in support of an album, 
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, they had released that February. 
Today, it’s hailed by music website Pitchfork as the fourth-best 
record of the 1990s, beating Nevermind and The Bends. Its title track 
alone has been streamed more than 80 million times on Spotify, and 


the physical LP remains a top seller every month in record stores 
around the globe. 

Neutral Milk Hotel seemed poised for whatever next step Jeff 
Mangum wished to pursue, though no one really expected or 
understood what he did next. After a New Year’s Eve 1998 show at 
the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia, attended mostly by friends, 





Mangum hit the eject button. He stopped releasing new music or 
doing interviews. He never said why he was stopping, or even that 
he was stopping, not even to his own bandmates. This radical act of 
negation has become one of the most baffling mysteries in music 
history. After all, who wouldn't want to be a rock star? 


m= ROM IHE BEGINNING OF MANGUM'S HIATUS, 
ES rumours abounded about his reasons for stepping away, 
usually some version of *he went nuts" because of In The Aer- 
oplane Over The Sea or the quasi-religious fandom that grew around 
it. Yet those who know him best say it means a lot to him that the 
record is so meaningful to so many. Not that he isn't a little shy. 

“I see that he's really touched when people come to talk to him 












and stuff like that,” longtime friend and collaborator Robert Sch- 
neider says. “Like if Pm with him and a person comes up to him and 
talks to him, he'll draw them a little picture or something like that. 
He's so kind. And then afterwards, he looks all like, That was nice. 
But if it's three people, suddenly it feels like a barrage, and he's 
looking for the exit." 

Mangum and Schneider have been friends since they were seven 
years old, crossing paths in second grade in a Ruston, Louisiana 
school for the children of professors at Louisiana Tech University. 
In the early '90s, along with a few of their friends, they co-founded 
Elephant 6, a collective of ambitious, idealistic weirdos with an un- 
fashionable obsession with psychedelic pop, out of which launched 
Mangum's Neutral Milk Hotel and Schneider's Apples In Stereo > 


MOJO 53 






















<< as well as the Olivia Tremor Control, Of Montreal, The 
Minders, Elf Power, and dozens more incarnations. 

Schneider also produced In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, 
and wrote and played a few parts. He says it wasn't really 
possible for the response to the record to be the thing that 
alienated Mangum, since Mangum didn't seem to realise 
what was happening until after he'd been away for a while. 

“I think it was something he noticed parallel to what 
was going on in his life," Schneider says, *but I think 
that by the time he noticed that it was a big deal, it was 
already far enough from the time he had been profession- 
ally in bands. 

“But I don't think ‘professionally’ is the right word 
to add to Elephant 6," he reflects, “because we're 
so unprofessional.” 

In fact, the collective's pronounced lack of 
music industry professionalism was an active, 
sustained choice to reject it. Evolving in their own 
bubble in out-of-the-way Ruston and subsequently 
establishing footholds in Athens and Denver, its 
artists have made almost all of their records in their 
homes rather than recording studios. Throughout 
their careers, they avoided the most basic parts of 
promotion — even band photos are hard to come by 
— and though several acts received approaches from 
major labels, all of them rebuffed that interest (and 
the payday that would have come with it) and clung 
instead to their creative principles: DIY or die. 

But even among this anti-commercial crew, Jeff 
Mangum leaned more outré. His first real band 
was a middle school trio called Maggott, which 
featured Mangum and future Olivia Tremor 
Control singer-guitarist Will Cullen Hart on 
fewer-than-six-stringed guitars plugged direct- 
ly into a boombox, plus their friend Ty Storms 
shouting absurdist lyrics over the squall. 


Plane sailing: (clockwise from top) Neutral Milk Hotel 
“actively choosing to reject professionalism” (from left) 
Barnes, Mangum, Koster and Spillane; Jeff gets in the 
Christmas spirit at home in Athens, Georgia, 2001; 1998 
single Holland, 1945; a group hug; Mangum’s inspiration, 
Anne Frank's Diary; blowing off some steam in San 
Francisco, 1998; debut LP On Avery Island (1996) and 
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (1998). 


Mangum played drums in many early bands, 
too, standing up behind a simple kit like Moe 
Tucker, playing with clothes hangers instead of 





mallets or drumsticks. — 
After high school, performing as Clay Bears, оп а ее. 


Mangum attempted to play a drone piece at а 
bar in Monroe, Louisiana. The venue cut them off , 


Barnes in Bablicon. “It was like he was daring 


after 10 minutes. | 1 people: *Iry and still like me now that I have 


сс #49 Ы 99 
But it’s just one note,” Jeff pleaded. this weird interest.’ Korena Pang was this abso- 


“Well,” the bar owner replied, 


(¢ 9 
It wasn t a very lute masterpiece of him pushing all the buttons. 


good one." We all thought it was a work of genius." 


Despite his aesthetic eccentricities, Man- 


m= OISE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A THEME WITH 
j Mangum. In 2011, long after slamming 
BESS the brakes on Neutral Milk Hotel, he 
played as the Soap Scums with a few other Ele- 
phant 6 alumni at AUX Fest in Athens. The set 
consisted almost entirely of guitar feedback and 


gum found an audience with Neutral Milk Ho- 
tel. Aeroplane sold modestly well from the start, 





and reviews noted its uniqueness. In Spin, Erik 
Himmelsbach described it as sounding as if 
Mangum had *concocted the whole thing alone in his 


car, in the middle of nowhere, his connection to the 
the performers eating toast. His playlists during 


a 2002 stint as a DJ on radio station WFMU 


included free jazz, musique concréte, spoken 


outside world limited to faraway oldies, Paul Harvey, 
and a bunch of old-time religion on AM radio." 
Those who saw the band perform in the '90s were 


word, antique folk and religious music, and any just as baffled but similarly impressed. 


number of other pieces not so easily classifiable. 
He released a medley of field recordings from a 


“Т don't think I’ve ever experienced a crowd 








i = 3 that was so swept by one person,” Andy Battag- 
© Bulgarian folk festival in 2001, and he was ТЕТЕ (7 lia, a friend and early audience member, says. 
d NONSE on a tape-collage project under the rh : Е kl її 1 E E | “You could feel an eyelash fall to the ground in 
= name Korena Pang around the same time. That record m тишип | the whole place. Everyone was sort of slack- 
g was never finished, but those who have heard it de- Is a : PRESE h he | jawed. To hear Jeff sing live is quite something." 
E "ie it » iei different from anything Neutral Milk | E: „ БЕ» IM + : ees in Norway, Jeff played a show right 
= Hotel released. = ACE se ER =| efore having a massive emergency root canal at 
We ag =r 
E “I think Jeff felt straitjacketed into being this song | SS two in the morning," says Jeremy Barnes. “1 
= guy, and so he pushed back," says the Elephant 6- don't think anyone in the audience was aware of 
© adjacent Dave McDonnell, who played with Jeremy the pain he was in, and it didn't affect his voice. 





54 MOJO 


Die zT f yos Сы z 


Шын ШЧ" | ая Pun 


| | 


“IT ALWAYS FELT MIRACULOUS THAT NO ONE WAS EVER HURT, 
| ALWAYS FELT LIKE IT WAS GOING TO END WITH SOMEONE 
GETTING RUN THROUGH WITH A CYMBAL STAND.” JULIAN KOSTER 





i”‏ ل 


I feel bad that we all took Jeff's super-solid, incredible consistency 
of vocal performance for granted." 

The performances were rarely tight but often memorable. Sets 
would be cut short when, say, a guitar was thrown into an amp or a 
whole person hurled himself into a drum kit. Others started late 
because the van had broken down or the band had stopped to play 
Wiffle ball on the way. The actual shows were just as shambolic. 

^I loved Neutral Milk Hotel, but it always sounded like shit," 
Elephant 6 collaborator Derek Almstead says. *The balances were 
always weird. I think they were a very difficult band to mix. It was 
visceral, but it was never this fully realised, awesome-sounding 
thing... That was part of the magic, that it was ramshackle and 
amateurish. Some nights it would sound awesome, but mostly it 
would be kind of chaotic." 

The band, for their part, leaned into the chaos. *It always felt 
miraculous that no one was ever hurt, because someone ought to 
have been,” says Julian Koster. “I always felt like it was going to end 
with someone getting run through with a cymbal stand, like one of 
those French swords. Because there was no concept of anything 
when that was happening. It was very joyful.” 


= EFF MANGUM’S FIRST RELEASE AS NEUTRAL MILK 
B= Hotel was 1994 single Everything Is, on Seattle indie Cher 

= Doll Records. Ever itinerant, he'd landed i in the Northwest 
"ed dropping out of Louisiana Tech and drifting Hirn Athens, 
Denver and LA, and would later describe the release as a “godsend 
because I was pretty much at the end of my rope with just about 





everything in my life at that point.” 

The song attracted the attention of Merge’s Laura Ballance and 
Mac McCaughan, and the first Neutral Milk Hotel album, On Avery 
Island, followed in March 1996, recorded by Mangum and Schnei- 
der on lo-fi 4-track in Denver home studios. After its release, 
Mangum assembled a band to tour it, recruiting Julian Koster, 


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ki 


ín rom Р, 
HINT 
“кь 'u " T 
— ا‎ i 
Е ааа 

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5r An 
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r U 
з a 


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AC 








W і pias ee 


whom he’d met in Athens not long before. Koster pulled in teenage 
drummer Jeremy Barnes, who had once opened for Koster’s Choc- 
olate USA in Albuquerque and was now languishing in Chicago. 
Mangum rounded out the quartet with Scott Spillane, who was 
making pizzas for drunk college kids in Austin. 

The extended band descended on Robert Schneider’s Pet 
Sounds studio in Denver in July 1997. Each of the new members 
transformed Neutral Milk Hotel’s sound. Koster’s quirky instru- 
mentation defamiliarised otherwise straightforward folk songs, 
most obviously with his ethereal singing saw. Spillane’s loose-but- 
never-sloppy horns fit nicely with the handmade aesthetic, adding 
depth and humanity. With collaborators handling duties he’d 
previously fulfilled himself — namely percussion, which Barnes had 
taken over assertively — Mangum had more time to immerse himself 
in the composition of what became In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. 

“When I wrote [Aeroplane], I finally had a room of my own to 
work in at all hours of the day with the door shut,” Mangum told 
Alternative Press in 1998. “Id sit there listening to short-wave 
radio and my records — Captain Beefheart, this French composer 
Pierre Henry, Bulgarian music, Hungarian gypsy music. The 
stability let me go deeper into my head and let the subconscious 
take over. There's such an obsessive nature to these new songs — a 
few of them really freaked me out. It took my housemates to say, 
“That’s not too strange.” 

Before recording On Avery Island, Mangum had decided he 
should learn more about history, though he wasn't sure whether it 
would help him understand the world more clearly or less. At a 
used-book store in Athens, he had picked up a copy of The Diary 
Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank. He spent two days reading it and 
three days crying. The experience would find its way into Aeroplane, 
which features numerous references to Frank's life and the 
Holocaust, including a song titled Holland, 1945. 

“While I was reading the book, she was completely alive to > 


MOJO 55 








ШЇЇ C 
TTT 


SIX KEY ALBUMS FROM THE ELEPHANT 6 


STABLE/CIRCUS, CHOSEN BY STEVIE CHICK 


+ 








OLIVIA TREMOR 


CONTROL 

MUSIC FROM THE 
UNREALIZED FILM SCRIPT: 
DUSK AT CUBIST CASTLE 


(Flydaddy, 1996) 

Assembled from years of 4- trac 
experiments, Olivia Tremor 
Control's debut had 27 tracks of 
acid-damaged pop accompanied 
byabonusalbum of "instrumen- 
tal themes and dream sequenc- 
es”. The approximation of 
1967-era psych-pop excess was 
eerily accurate; the songcraft 
crackled with inspiration. 


тиш AFPLES = erano 


TONE SOUL EVOLUTION 





THE APPLES 


TONE SOUL EVOLUTION 
(SpinART, 1997) 

E6’s most succinct melodists, 
the second album by Robert 
Schneider’s The Apples In Stereo 
boasted an embarrassment of 
charismatic tuneage. Seemingly 
taking The Beatles’ Got To Get 
You Into My Life as his sonic 
compass, Schneider’s double- 
tracked vocals and unabashedly 
‘pop’ hooks were bolstered by 
Byrdsian jangle and Stax-y horns. 


NEUTRAL MILK 
HOTEL 


IN THE AEROPLANE 
OVER ThE SEA (Merge, 1998) 


A chaotic, 
magical-realist 
folkrockopera 
inspired by The 
Diary Of Anne 
E | Frank and scored 
b distorted guitars, singing saw 
and ecstatic, drunken trumpets, 
Jeff Mangum's finest moment is 
also the Elephant 6 movement's 
peak. Delivered with maverick 
zeal, its themes of love, death, 











tragedy and unlikely redemption 
still resonate. 


CIRCULATORY 
SYSTEM — 
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM 


(Cloud Recordings, 2001) 


Formed from the 
ashes of Olivia 
Tremor 

Control - indeed, 
numbering all 
members of that 
group, minus founder Bill Doss - 
Circulatory System pushed OTC's 
psychedelic experiments even 
further out-there, its baroque 
instrumentation, playful 
production effects and questing 
songwriting evoking late 
Zombies, Smile-era Beach Boys 
and Syd-era Floyd. 


m 
а 






JEFF MANGUM 
LIVE AT JITTERY JOE'S 
(Orange Twin, 2001) 


Highlights of this bootleg-quali- 
ty recording of an intimate solo 
Mangum gig - taped by 
filmmaker Lance Bangs at an 
Athens coffee shop in 1997 - 
include a joyful strum through 
rarity Engine, a beguiling cover 
of Barry Mann'sl Love How You 
Love Meanda breathtaking 
first-ever public performance of 
Oh Comely. 


HISSING FAUNA, ARE YOU 
THE DESTROYER? 

(Polyvinyl, 2007) 

Kevin Barnes's Of Montreal broke 
orbit from the '60s with this 
eclectic, Bowie-esque concept 
album focused on Barnes's 
identity crises. Hissing Fauna... 
switched genre at will, peaking 
with the happy/sad synth-pop 
genius of Heimdalsgate Like A 
Promethean Curse. 

































































жы De 1 





< те,” Mangum told Puncture in 1998. “I pretty much knew 
what was going to happen. But that's the thing: you love people 
because you know their story. You have sympathy for people even 
when they do stupid things because you know where they're 
coming from, you understand where they're at in their head." 

Music is typically understood as the segregation of signal from 
noise, but beneath that simple heuristic lies a subjective process. 
Who decides which is which? Aeroplane takes the position that even 
polar opposites — signal and noise, transcendent beauty and 
devastating ugliness, life and death — can coexist harmoniously. 
Aeroplane loops the contradictory acts of looking inward and 
boundlessly outward into a continuous, synthesised whole. 

“Some of the songs really scared me when I first wrote them,” 
Mangum told Magnet in 1998. “They were so intense I wasn’t sure 
I even wanted them on the album until I got to Denver. I let my 
subconscious take over... It was a real struggle to try to include the 
more beautiful aspects of life. I find being here to be a very beautiful 


thing, and I wanted as much beauty as possible to come across.” 


| tour sold out, none of the venues fit more than 700 or so 





| people. Many held far fewer. But once Mangum withdrew, 
something strange happened. People who had seen or even just 
heard them spread the gospel, without the help of Facebook or 
Spotify or commercial radio stations or MIV or really any other 
means that can't be described as someone telling someone else to 
check it out. The rest of the band had moved on to other projects, 
and Mangum remained largely out of public view: 

The explosion in Aeroplane's popularity became tangible when 
Mangum toured again as a solo act from 2011 to 2013, followed by 
a full NMH reunion from 2013 to 2015. He didn't play any new 
material, didn't participate in any promotion, and permitted no 
recording of any kind: no photos, no videos, no audio bootlegs. The 
classic Neutral Milk Hotel line-up — Mangum, Barnes, Koster, Spill- 
ane — and a rotating cast of supporting musicians played more than 
160 shows in 20 months (following more than 100 in the preceding 
20 months on the solo tour). The full-band schedule was as gruel- 
ling as it had been in 1998 — 25 different countries and 41 US states 
(plus DC) — but the accommodations were cushier and the crowds 
were much, much bigger. This time, Neutral Milk Hotel were head- 
lining major festivals and selling out huge theatres in minutes. 

“Whole different son of a bitch,” says Laura Carter. “Suddenly 
3,000, 6,000, all the way up to Coachella, which was 80,000. 
The bigger the show, the lonelier the experience. The crowd 
becomes a thing, with more separation and barriers between the 
band and the audience." 

Going into the reunion tour, Mangum knew that the majority of 
the crowds would be people who had never had the chance to see 
the band perform, and those people had high expectations. 


“I think there was immense pressure,” 


says Scott Spillane. 
“Imagine going to sleep one night and you're playing a bar that has 
a laundromat in the back, and then you wake up and you're 
scheduled to play Coachella. That's a lot of heat.” 

Mangum felt the heat before the tour began. The band practised 
constantly. He took vocal cord training to make sure he could sing 
each night with his trademark intensity. Alcohol was not permitted 
backstage, lest a hangover derail the next night's show. Rolling 
around in the grass was forbidden, to avoid Lyme disease. 

"At the beginning of the tour, Jeff took me aside and told me that 
I couldn't throw him into the drum set any more,” says Koster. “It 
was funny, because I'm pretty sure it was he who always threw me 
into the drum set." 

To the audience, the restrained performances felt like listening 
to Aeroplane more than they felt like seeing the band perform live in 
its '90s heyday. 

“It was very, very composed,” says Cucchiaro. “The lines were 
very clean. It had that kind of fidelity and tidiness. The '97 shows 
were obviously sloppier, but in a holy way. There was some sort of 
spiritual wildness." 


Getty (3) 


mr : ы". 





JACKETED INTO BEING 
THIS SONG GUY, AND 50 HE 


PUSHED BACK. IT WAS LIKE HE 


WAS DARING PEOPLE: 'TRY 
AND STILL LIKE ME NOW.” 
DAVE McCONNELL 





3 reunion tour wrapped in 2015, Jeff 
= Mangum has returned to a life of 
seclusion, and it's unclear whether that will 
ever change. Had he remained on the rock- 
star road, his collaborators would have happily 
taken the ride with him, but they begrudge him 
nothing for flooring it down the off-ramp instead. 

“The odd thing is that it worked out in the best 
way possible," says Barnes. "Julian put out many 
Music Tàpes records. Scott has a wonderful wife, he 
has a daughter, he became a carpenter. Jeff met [his 
wife] Astra, and he has found a sense of peace that he 
didn't have back in those days, when he would wake 
up yelling or fall into a depression in the middle of 
rehearsal. I met my wife, Heather, and my adventures 
as a musician are still going [as A Hawk And A Hack- 
saw]. I think we all, knowingly or unknowingly, had a 
hand in the band ending. But from the moment I 
joined to the end, I was completely devoted to it." 

In the collective's peak years, from the beginning of 1995 to the 
end of 1999, the Olivia Iremor Control made Music From The Un- 
realized Film Script: Dusk At Cubist Castle and Black Foliage: Animation 
Music Volume 1. Robert Schneider's The Apples In Stereo released 
four albums, and Elf Power and Of Montreal three apiece. At least 
15 other acts associated with the collective released albums — some 
not so much finished products as they are documents of creative 
indulgence, dispatches from the distant reaches of messing around. 

“То a person, everyone in the Elephant 6 has a heart of gold, but 
everyone was also dealing with their own trauma, their own flaws, 
and serious struggles with poverty and all the issues that go along 
with that,” says Barnes. “There were moments of real beauty, and 
there were moments of real despair. It’s really strange how preda- 
tors and vultures appear when you are at your lowest. The salvation, 





“THINK JEFF FELT STRAIT: | 






NDIE 
ENDLESS 





Milking it: (clockwise from top) Jeff records the sea during a trip 
to New Zealand, 2001; Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes has a flutter, 
Chicago, 2012; Mangum and Barnes performing at Shaky Knees 
Music Festival, Atlanta, May 9, 2015; The Apples' 1993 Tidal Wave 
EP, with the Elephant 6 logo; Endless Endless by Adam Clair; 
umbrellas out - The Apples In Stereo, 2000. 























in the end, was in creativity and magical thinking." 
Far from being a well-oiled machine, the collective 
operated like an improvised Rube Goldberg apparatus 
made from chicken wire, old luggage, and fifth-hand 
furniture, but the fragility is entirely the point. It 
sounds as if it could come apart at any time, rickety 
and ramshackle by design, such that it can exist at only 
a human scale. The life-affirming joy that comes 


X 4 through on In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and other 


Elephant 6 records is a reminder that regardless of 
audience size, music has value for the people who 
make it, too. 

“It’s like taking walks or drinking water,” 
says Laura Carter. “We should all do more of it, 
because it’s healthy.” 

Carter recalls when Will Cullen Hart designed the Elephant 6 
Recording Co. logo in 1993, for The Apples In Stereo’s Tidal Wave 
EP The art nouveau-via-Haight Ashbury insignia appears on 
numerous E6 records, serving as both a brand and a rallying cry. 

“Will made this logo to kind of say ‘fuck you’ to the big labels. 
‘We can have our own collective and make our own brand with 
nothing but inspiration.’ They could never get acceptance from 
one of those brands, coming from Louisiana. So they just made 
their own. 

“And then they all get behind it,” she adds, “and it has meaning. 
It has actual value. I still think that’s fucking cool. More power to 
that kind of mentality. All you have to do is make it up.” 


Adapted | from Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History Of The Elephant 6 Mystery, | 
published by Hachette Books, price $30 in the US and £25 in the UK. M; 


MOJO 57 








WILD 


The Cramps, The Germs, The 
Go-Go's... no one captured 
punk rock in LA like Slash 
magazine house snapper 

. As a vibrant 
new book of her work from 
19// to 1980 underlines, 
the rules were there were 
no rules. "There was no 
one to say, Don't do that, 
she tells 


2 
j Е 
Р f 


| 
| 









777 


T WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE A CAREER. 
Melanie Nissen already had a job — managing a book- 
shop in Palos Verdes — and a child, when she and her 
then boyfriend, Steve Samiof, decided to start a mu- 
sic magazine. But when it debuted, in May 1977, with 
The Damned's Dave Vanian on the cover, Los Angeles 
did not know what had hit it. “Everyone thought it 
was a monster magazine," remembers Nissen, cheer- 
fully. *Because Dave Vanian looked like à vampire, and 
we'd called it Slash.” 

Nissen's new book, Hard + Fast, chronicles 
the dawn of punk in LA, drawing together her 
photographs from the Slash archives and others 
previously unpublished. Energy pours off its 
pages as The Germs, X, The Bags, The Go-Go's 


and more are captured on and off-stage = 





exuding a goofy innocence you don’t see in the 
documentation of the London or New York 
punk scenes. 

“I think there was a camaraderie here,” says 
Nissen. “Just a mix of artists and bands and mu- 
sicians and illustrators and everybody, a great 
coming together with all this freedom and no 
one to say, ‘Don’t do that,’ or, *That's ugly.” 

Nissen’s pictures commemorate a vanished 
LA of fast food joints, grody club restrooms and vacant lots, the 
flipside of Hollywood’s slick self-image. Later, the fashion and film 
types would flood the scene, but the biggest celebrities in Nissen’s 
pics, apart from the bands, are skinflick auteur Russ Meyer and his 
well-endowed muse, Kitten Natividad. 

“I love that photo!” exclaims Nissen. “The punk scene crossed 
into alternative movies, and kind of porno stuff. And then there was 
this British performance art duo, The Kipper Kids. Performance art 

5 Was a real influence on the scene.” 

For Nissen, 1977 to 1980 was a whirl of shows at the Starwood 
and LA's punk Mecca, The Masque. Once in situ, she'd muscle her 
way to the front of the stage, her shots so close to the bands she'd 
almost be in the bands. “It could be rough and tumble, but I kind of 
liked it," she says. “Еог me the challenge was always to get the shot 
that no one else would get." 





Melanie Nissen, Steve Sam 


WEST 





LA punk’s salad days couldn't last. Slash 
put out The Germs' first single (^We took 
them to this weird place in Hollywood where 
you could make a record in a booth”) on a 
path to becoming a label, home to Violent 
Femmes, The Gun Club and Dream Syndi- 
cate. The magazine checked out in 1980 and 
so did scene-leading Germs singer Darby 
Crash: suicide-by-overdose. 

Nissen went on to work as an art director 
for majors including A&M and Virgin (she 
was behind the Charles Burns cover of Iggy 
Pop's Brick By Brick and the ‘merkin’ artwork 
for Pils That What Is Not) but has always 
held a torch for the more anarchic 
and unself-conscious image-making 
of her Slash days. 

* Most of the stuff in the book was 
not posed at all,” she reflects. “These 
were caught moments. And you 
know, if I had got to control it, I can't 
imagine what I would have done that 
I would have liked better. You know 
what I mean?" 


MOJO 59 


Devo bag themselves up, 19/7 


From left, Robert Casale, Gerald 
Casale, Alan Myers (on the floor), 
Robert Mothersbaugh and Mark 
Mothersbaugh mint their reputation 
for conceptual japes and dressing- 
up. “This was the first time I'd met 
them,” says Nissen. “They came to 
the Slash studio and they played 
with all their props and the shoot 
took on a life of its own. | remember 
thinking, Should | even be watching 
this?, because they were in their 
underpants and stuff. They look like 
human condoms." 


60 MOJO 


Belinda Carlisle, Go-Go 
and Germs fan 
Beforeforming The Go-Go's with 
Jane Wiedlin et al (you can see 
Nissen's shots of the band live in 
MOJO 321), Belinda Carlisle was 
briefly the drummer in The 
Germs, under the name Dottie 
Danger, after she'd met Teresa 
Marie Ryan (AKA Lorna Doom) in 
anart class at Newbury Park High 
School. A bout of glandular fever 
ended her tenure іп the band. 


Peter Tosh and friend, 1978 


Tosh captured by Nissen for the September 1978 issue of 
Slash, in the wake of his not-always-well-received jaunt 
supporting the Stones’ Some Girls tour. Slash’s interviewer 
found him positive about his new label, Rolling Stones 
Records, but insistent that a white man can't play reggae: “It 
can play the branches and the leaves, but it can never play the 
roots.” Note his matchbook featuring the face of JFK. 





Melanie Nissen 


















The Damned's Dave Vanian, April 19/7 


From the shoot that gave Nissen and Samiof 
the cover of Slash #1.“The Damned came over 
and played at the Starwood,” says Nissen. 
“And that was a big thrill. We had never had 

a punk band come over from London before. 
And I wound up taking pictures backstage, 
with a flash. Then they came to Screamers’ 
house. And we did a shoot with them there, 
which was really fun. And they were very 
cheeky and very nice and very weird.” 








The Germs, 1979: 
(from left) Lorna 
Doom, Pat Smear, 
Пагбу Сгаѕһ, 

Don Bolles 


Crash had a troubled 
upbringing (his addict 
brother was murdered 
by a dealer) and The 
Germs’ short life span 
was defined by his own 
drug problems and early 
death. “He was really 
sweet, and a little shy,” 
says Nissen. “Just a baby 
with his little chipped 
tooth. As time wenton, 
which I think you can see 
in the photos, he kind of 
starts to deteriorate. 

It was very sad and 

very upsetting.” 


MOJO 61 


E 
0 
N 

pa 

2 

© 
С 

Ei 
u 

> 


SPEAK WO EVIL 


Screamers’ Tommy Gear 
and David Brown, 1977 


Led by rubber-faced lead singer/ 
provocateur Tomata du Plenty (AKA 
David Xavier Harrigan), Screamers’ 
presciently keyboard-based 
avant-pop remained unreleased in 
their lifetime. “The Screamers were 
very LA,” says Nissen, “and Tomata 
was such acharacter. He threw really 
interesting parties where he'd invite 
all walks of life. And as an artist he 
was very challenging and creative." 


YOUNG, LOUD 


AND SNOTTY 


Dead Boys’ Stiv Bators 
and Cheetah Chrome, 1977 


Cleveland, Ohio's sonic reducers in 
full effect. “That’s my favourite live 
photo actually,” says Nissen. “I love 
the energy in it. Just that caught 
moment of body language. It’s the 
ultimate punk body language.” 
Enjoy, especially, that teasing flash of 
Bators’ leopard-print undercrackers, 
and the roadie, in Stetson, taking his 
life in his hands. 








Punk fans, plus Gerard Taylor of The Wildcats, 19/8 


Taylor, inthe foreground of Nissen's photograph, was already 
rock aristocracy, being the third child of former Beatles PR man 
Derek Taylor. Behind him, the graffiti'd walls ofthe Masque 
club are unmistakable. "It was rough,” says Nissen. “There was 
nothing about it that was finished or done or anything. It was 
justthis raw space that fit everybody perfectly." 





Levi Dexter of Levi & The Rockats, 19/9 


TheLA punkscene was quickto embrace 
punk-adjacent strands - eg. the rockabilly 
revival exemplified by Southend's Levi Dexter 
and band."Thatthing where all the music 
started merging," says Nissen, "punk with 
rockabilly and reggae. Everything started 
mish-mashing with everything else. | thought 
that was great." 


HARD + FAST 








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Peter Jackson's Get Back trilogy has shed new light on a gripping subplot: the emergence of 
GEORGE HARRISON and his chafing at his status in Ihe Beatles. But his discomfort 
wasn't new, and his flowering as an artist would soon bear extraordinary fruit. “George was 
finding his independence,” discovers TOM DOYLE, “and he wouldn't be dominated." 
PLOS: GEORGE'S зо GREATEST SONGS: in and out of The Beatles. 


AND: PAUL McCARTWNEY: “T think what George did was phenomenal.” 


66 F S THIS A HARRISONG?” JOHN LENNON 
Ф enquires of George Harrison. It's Friday, January 3, 
1969 — day two for The Beatles at Twickenham Film 
Studios — as seen 37 minutes into the opening episode 
of Peter Jackson's Get Back doc, the music head's TV 
event of this and many other seasons. As Harrison leads 
the others through the chords and melody of the just-written All 
Things Must Pass, Lennon and McCartney's indifference is clear — 
and painful to watch. 


To be fair, Lennon appears to be concentrating on following the 
chord changes on his Lowrey organ, but McCartney comes over as 
semi-detached and going through the motions. Only when John, g 
Paul and George’s voices begin to knit in harmony during the £ 
chorus do we get a tantalising snatch of how great a Beatles version £ 
of the song might have been. Lennon and McCartney both mention А 
All Things Must Pass later, when they read out lists of works-in- 
progress, but the band are never seen or heard returning to it. 

Lennon’s quip referenced Harrisongs Ltd., the publishing > 


О 
= 


MOJO 65 





Bob Whitaker 












<< company Harrison had begun funnelling songs through after his 
contract with the Lennon/McCartney-biased Northern Songs (with 
its low royalty rate — another bone of contention) had lapsed in 
March 1968. But he was also referring to the compositions the in- 
creasingly prolific George had been trying, and often failing, to offer 
the others for inclusion on Beatle records since 1963. 

Harrison's thwarted songwriter frustrations come to a head in 
Get Back. When he suggests to McCartney that the live album/TV 
show project might somehow involve more collective responsibility 
in their writing — “It should be where if you write a song, I feel as 
though I wrote it, and vice versa...” — McCartney mumbles, “Yeah,” 
and flicks the ash off his cigar, as Ringo looks on morosely. Later, play- 
ing I Me Mine to the others in the studio at Apple, Harrison snaps, “1 
don't give a fuck if you don’t want it. PI put it in my musical." 

“George was writing more," Ringo remembered in 1995's The 
Beatles Anthology documentary. “Не wanted things to go his way. 
When we first started, they basically went John and Paul's way. But 
George was finding his independence and he wouldn't be dominated." 

Lennon and McCartney's underrating of Harrison — and lack of 
diplomacy — is evident throughout Get Back, as is the fact that the 
latter seems to be spoiling for a fight. But, Бу Wednesday, January 29, 
the day before the rooftop gig, George had reached a decision as 
regards his future creativity. He told an encouraging John and Yoko, 
^l've got so many songs that I’ve got like my quota of tunes for the 
next 10 years or albums. I'd just like to maybe do an album of [my] 
songs. 'Cos all these songs of mine I could give to people who could 
do 'em good. But I suddenly realised, ‘Y know, fuck all that.’ m just 
gonna do me for a bit." 


F WE COULD WATCH A TIME-LAPSE FILM OF GEORGE 
| Harrison's blossoming as a songwriter, it would show an initially 

tentative growth taking on strange, unusual and, ultimately, 
beautiful forms through the 22 solo George compositions that 
appeared on Beatles records. 

It was in the middle of the group's six-night August 1963 run at 
the Gaumont in Bournemouth, when Harrison was ill and recuper- 
ating in his room at the Palace Court Hotel, that he was moved to 
pick up a guitar and write the exploratory Don't Bother Me. Previ- 


ously, Harrison had co-credits with McCartney (The Quarrymen's 


66 MOJO 





By George!: (clockwise from 
left) Harrison gets cagey, 
March 1966; Bombay-recorded 
45 The Inner Light and the 
Beatles-rejected Isn't It A Pity; 
George and Pattie Boyd hang- 
ing out with Frank Sinatra in 
1968; Harrison's first and only 
Beatles A-side, Something; 
on-stage with Dylan, 1971. 





In Spite Of All The Danger) and Lennon (the'61 instrumental Cry 
For A Shadow), but this was his first attempt to fly solo. 
“I decided to try to write a song, just for a laugh,” he later told 


Beatles biographer Hunter Davies. “I forgot all about it til we came 
to record the next LP It was a fairly crappy song." 

Appearing at the end of 63 on With The Beatles, Don’t Bother Me 
was better than Harrison's dismissive estimation — musically upbeat, 
but lyrically grumpy. The latter aspect was set to become a recurring 
motif in his early songs, though there would be two further Beatles LPs 
before the public would hear another Harrison tune. “I was involved 
in so many other things that I never got round to it,” he told Davies. 

In truth, as George Martin remembered, Harrison had present- 
ed the others with half-finished songs in the interim, but “none of 
us had liked something he had written”. McCartney, in Anthology, 
admitted that he and John tended to edge George out. “I don’t 
think he thought of himself very much as a songwriter,” he said. 
“John and I would obviously dominate. .. not really meaning to, but 
we were ‘Lennon and McCartney’.” 

Help! in 1965 featured Harrison’s achingly lovelorn I Need You 
and comparatively ho-hum You Like Me Too Much, but as Lennon 
later confessed, supporting George’s writing was an obligation 
rather than a pleasure. 

“There was an embarrassing period where his songs weren't that 
good," John reckoned. *Nobody wanted to say anything, but we all 
worked on them — like we did on Ringo's. I mean, we put more 
work into those songs than we did on some of our stuff. So, he just 
wasn't in the same league for a long time — that's not putting him 
down, he just hadn't had the practice as a writer that we had." 

Harrison was a fast learner, however. Musically, he filled his 
songs with fresh outside influences, copping Roger McGuinn's 
chiming 12-string Rickenbacker riff from The Byrds' arrangement 
of The Bells Of Rhymney for If I Needed Someone on Rubber Soul, 
or throwing in the odd, effective chord change, such as the disso- 
nant E7 flat 9 in I Want To Tell You on Revolver (that first appears 
before the line *When you're here" and was, for Harrison, meant 
to convey frustration at his inarticulacy). 

Still, the saturnine lyrical tendency remained, whether George was 
attacking targets vague (the personal/political judgements of Think 
For Yourself) or very specific (Taxman), the latter so obviously great 





























that it was pushed to pole position in the track 
list of Revolver. At the same time, an inner peace 
seemed to descend upon Harrison, as experi- 
ments with LSD led to a deeper spiritual search. 

Some cynicism lingered in the words of 
Love You To, Harrison's first raga-influenced 
offering (*There's people standing round/ 
Who’ll screw you in the ground”), but by 
Within You Without You and particularly the 
Bombay-recorded The Inner Light — the first 
Harrison composition to appear on a Beatles 
single, the B-side of Lady Madonna — the heaviness in Harrison's 
soul had, for now, lifted. 

^m Y THE WHITE ALBUM, HARRISON WAS GETTING 
B a song per side of the twin disc album, and lyrically, psyche- 

delia had given way to surrealism. George had bought into 
the '67 Summer of Love only very briefly, overwhelmed by lysergic 
wonder in It's All Too Much (written and recorded that year but 
surfacing in '69 on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack), before 
becoming disillusioned and fearful when he was mobbed on a visit 
to Haight-Ashbury. That sense of trippy paranoia was beautifully 
conveyed in the woozy Blue Jay Way on Magical Mystery Tour, while 
earlier '67 recording and Sgt. Pepper also-ran Only A Northern Song 
might have been a pop at his publisher but the sense of a band 
“going wrong” was unsettlingly and brilliantly realised through 
Tomorrow Never Knows-styled tape loop montage. 

Then, as they did for all The Beatles, things got weirder. If While 
My Guitar Gently Weeps was gorgeous in its abstraction, then Piggies 
and Savoy Truffle were intangibly scary (even before the Manson 
Family had taken the former's contempt for unenlightened humanity 
as a licence to cull). Elsewhere, in his fourth contribution to The White 
Album, George's reluctance to push himself forward was rendered in 
audio. Arguably, only with the full-fat Giles Martin remix in 2018 did 
the whispery Long, Long, Long finally reveal its true wonder. 

All the while, it was hard to shake the impression that Harrisongs 
were being suppressed by Lennon and McCartney. Written in 1966, 
and destined for All Things Must Fass, Isn't It A Pity, his gentle lament 


for failing inter-personal relationships, was repeatedly overlooked 


"MOST OF 

. THE SONGS TTIIS 

YEAR | WROTE LAST \ said as much: “I think that until now, 

YEAR OR THE YEAR 

BEFORE. MAYBE NOW, 

[JOST DON'T CARE. 

WHETHER YOU ARE 

GOING TO LIKE 

Jf THEM.” GEORGE 

1 TO PAUL, I969 


for Beatles albums (engineer Geoff Emerick recalled that it was con- 
sidered for inclusion on Sgt. Pepper; Beatles author/historian Mark 
Lewisohn says it was in the running for Revolver). When Harrison 
re-aired it at the Twickenham sessions in '69, he had to remind 
Lennon that it had been rejected by him three years before. 
Harrison likely fancied Isn't It A Pity to be his first “standard”, since 
he thought about offering it to Frank Sinatra after meeting the singer in 
Los Angeles in the summer of 68 when producing Jackie Lomax’s Is 
This What You Want? for Apple. Harrison should perhaps have trusted 
his instincts. Sinatra was later to cover another Harrison composition, 
Something, lauding it as “the greatest love song of the past 50 years” 
(though initially he misattributed it to Lennon and McCartney). 
Something was, of course, Harrison’s first and only Beatles 
A-side — a sign that Paul and John were finally prepared 
to accept that George was now their songwriting 
equal. In a conversation between the three 
taped at Apple in 1969 by Lennon and 
Ono’s PA Anthony Fawcett, McCartney 


until this year, our songs have been bet- 

ter than George’s. Now this year his 
songs are at least as good as ours.” 

George chipped in, “That’s a myth, 

because most of the songs this year I 

wrote last year or the year before, any- 

way. Maybe now, I just don’t care wheth- 

er you are going to like them or not. I just 

do ’em.” 


| HE DELUGE OF SONGS THAT 
revealed themselves on АЙ Things Must 


Pass in November 1970 was perhaps 





inevitable, then. It was fitting that the triple LP's open- 
ing track, I'd Have You Anytime, was a Harrison/Dylan 
original, since the one songwriter who really took 
George seriously, pre-Abbey Road, was Bob. 

As the two became friends, writing Га Have You 
Anytime together in Woodstock at Thanksgiving in 
1968 (only weeks before the Get Back/Let It Be ses- 
sions began), Dylan's endorsement emboldened Har- 
rison, while in turn the latter encouraged the former 
to employ more sophisticated chords in his own compositions. 
Dylan had long admired The Beatles’ twisty and original progres- 
sions, saying, “Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous.” 

Ken Scott, one of the engineers on All Things Must Fass, had first 
met Harrison in 1964 when working on A Hard Day’s Night. By 
1970, he could see that George was walking taller. “He was no long- 
er under the thumb of John and Paul,” Scott told MOJO in 2020. 
“So, he was a lot freer. He had proved his worth as a songwriter. This 
gives you a lot more courage, I guess, to put forth your own ideas.” 

The spiritual dimensions of All Things Must Pass were explored 
more fully on Harrison's second solo album, 1973s Living In The 
Material World. Bassist (and Revolver cover artist) Klaus Voormann 
played on both records and remembers that, *on the next LP it was 
much more apparent. There were [mostly] religious type of songs 
on it. I certainly felt George was very, very serious about it and he 
needed a sort of anchor." 

From here, point proven, Harrison's output grew patchier, as his 
tendency towards reticence returned. Ironically, he seemed happi- 
est when back in a band. His Traveling Wilburys compadre Tom 
Petty revealed that George, “told me many times he was very 
uncomfortable being the guy up front having to sing all the songs. It 
was just not his idea of fun.” 

As a modern barometer of Harrison's songwriting success, 
however, a search for The Beatles on Spotify reveals that Here Comes 
The Sun beats any and all Lennon/McCartney songs in popularity, 
with over three quarters of a billion plays — 300 million more than its 
nearest competitor, Let It Be, and nearly double those for Yesterday. 
In the end, the dark horse may have won the race after all. > 


MOJO 67 


© Ed Thrasher/mptvimages.com, mptvimages.com 





Chewing on life's gristle, 
George would sometimes 
glimpse the Godhead. It's 
what makes his 30 Greatest 
penes SO кани; 





Hello sunshine: 
George enjoys 
the inner 
light, 1967. 





4 | 
4 


DEEP BLOE 


(B-side of Bangla Desh, 1971) 


Recorded in Los Angeles in July 1971 at the 
Bangla Desh sessions, and inspired by the death 
of his mother Louise the previous year, Deep 
Blue featured Harrison on multi-tracked dobro 
and acoustic guitar, plus Jim Keltner on gentle 
drums. For all the lyrical despair (“when the sun 
shines it’s not enough to make me feel bright”), 
the tone is uplifting. Surprisingly overlooked for 
LP inclusion (beyond '76's Best Of) until added to 
2014's remaster of Living In The Material World. JA 


FISH ON 
THE SAND 


(from Cloud Nine, 1987) 


| Kids today would 
call TMI. "You know | 
need you... If I'm not 
with you/I’m not so 
А much of a тап/'т 
B . like a fish on the 
np - sand.” Lyrically, the 
portrait it paints is of 
| a needy floundering 
| E creature, “no use 
to no one else”. But, of course, that's not all. 
Sustained and nourished by Jim Keltner's neo- 
motorik drumming and a 12-string Rickenbacker 
riff The Byrds would kill for, George is singing with 





Getty 


68 MOJO 








power and defiance, the musical yang to his inner 
yin. Which one, it asks, is telling the truth? AM 


BE HERE NOW 
(from Living In The Material 
World, 1973) 


Written in Los Angeles in 1971, its dreamlike 
melody fittingly coming to Harrison as he was 
falling asleep, this is a meditative instruction 

in song ("A mind that wants to wander round 

a corner/Is an unwise mind"), with a title lifted 
from a book by American spiritual teacher Ram 
Dass, matched to reverie-inducing organ drones 
and intricate acoustic guitar playing in an open 
tuning. George's unhurried vocal delivery 
added to the air of beautiful stillness. TD 


I ME MINE 


(from Let It Be, 1970) 


Five days into the 
fraught Get Back 
process, Harrison, 
the one seemingly 
most critical of the 
whole shebang, was 
moved to write a 
waltz with what 
turned out to be one 
of Let It Be's sweetest 
melodies and most evasive lyrics. Is he address- 
ing the unhealthy self-absorption required of 
the three songwriting Beatles to conjure new 
material to stay at the toppermost? When he 
sings, "Now they're frightened of leaving it..." 
does he mean the band? // 


TRY SOME 

BOY SOME 

(from Living In The Material 
World, 1973) 


Surplus to All Things 
Must Pass, the song 
contrasts the 
chemical bliss then 
enslaving bestie 

Eric Clapton with 
George’s own divine 
submission, a 
message muddied 
by the sumptuously 
seductive chorus on which the song fades, tune- 
smith George and producer Phil Spector pulling 
out all stops. First recorded in 1971 by Ronnie 
Spector for an abandoned album on Apple, two 
years on Harrison replaced her vocals with his 
own, and divided critics and fans. An enthusias- 
tic David Bowie covered it faithfully in 2003. MS 


PIGGIES 


(from The White Album, 1968) 


Harrison had a lifelong aversion to authority fig- 
ures (dig his sarcastic duel with the condescend- 





ing adman in A Hard Day's Night). Kicked 

off with an aristocratic harpsichord, Piggies 
satirises the haute snobbery of the upper 
classes, ending with a Python-esque group- 
sing. Mother Louise suggested the "damn good 
whacking" line. As for other interpretations, 

he noted it had "nothing to do with American 
policemen or Californian shagnasties!” after the 
Manson Family appropriated the title during 
their murder spree. MSi 


ALL THOSE 
YEARS AGO 


(from Somewhere In 
England, 1981) 


Originally written 
for Ringo Starr with 
very different lyrics, 
Harrison reclaimed 
this irresistible, ele- 
giac, George Martin- 
produced melody 

in the wake of John 
| Lennon's murder 

| | . and it was the first 
time athe mec surviving Beatles had appeared 
on record together since the split. The youngest 
Beatle confessed that "I always looked up to 
you", while Imagine and All You Need Is Love 
were referenced, Al Kooper added rumbling 
piano, and a world shook up by Lennon's death 
momentarily seemed a kinder place. JA 


OLD BROWN 
SHOE 


(B-side of The Ballad Of John 
And Yoko, 1969) 








This barnstorming stomper was introduced by 
Harrison during the January sessions at Apple 
Studios as a ‘rocker’ - no doubt hoping to 
engage his bandmates’ attention after slowies 
like | Me Mine met mixed reactions - and was 
rehearsed then, before a full recording in April. 
A winning mixture of ska and boogie, with an 
incredible bridge where Harrison tracks the bass 
with his vaulting guitar, it's one of the very best 
recordings from The Beatles' last year - and one 
that would have lifted Let It Be. JS 


MARWA BLOES 


(from Brainwashed, 2002) 


Taking up side two 
of Ravi Shankar's 
1968 In New York 
- album, the tradition- 
al Indian classical 
Raga Marwa evokes 
a profoundly sunset 
mood pregnant with 
ТОРИК acceptance. А favou- 
CENE riteof Harrison's, he 
re-imagined it showcasing slide guitar in an 
instrumental evoking Hawaii, where he had a 
home, as well as India. Recorded in his final 





O 1978 Ed Thrasher/MPTV/Eyevine 


years, it was completed posthumously by son 
Dhani and Jeff Lynne (acoustic guitars and 
keyboards), Ray Cooper (percussion) and Marc 
Mann (strings). A beautiful and fitting last 
musical testament. MS 


BEHIND THAT 
LOCKED DOOR 


(from All Things Must Pass, 1970) 


Harrison's entreaty to Bob Dylan to leave 

the reclusive shell he'd been in after his 1966 
motorcycle accident, begun the night before 
Bob and The Band played the Isle Of Wight 
festival in August 1969. He emphasises Dylan's 
international importance - "The love you are 
blessed with/The world's waiting for" – and 
encourages him to emerge "from behind that 
locked door". Smitten with Nashville Skyline, 
George invited Nashville cat Pete Drake to 
add lush pedal steel guitar. MSi 


I WANT TO 
ТЕШ. YOO 


(from Revolver, 1966) 


Many of Harrison's 
Beatles songs have 
snags: unpolished 
aspects to their com- 
position which may 
or may not be delib- 
` erate. But in his third 
- contribution to 
* Revolver, he confi- 
dently makes the 
wonkiest component - a dissonant E7 chord 





L2 
= "e ж 
7 


with a flattened 9th, pounded on piano - the 
song's hook. Souring the air of positivity, it 
serves to sonically illustrate that the inability 
to express oneself - the subject of the lyric - 
painful, even if the feeling you can't express is 
a pleasurable one. J/ 


ISN'I IT A PITY 


(from All Things Must Pass, 1970) 


Often accused of writing dirges and being 
generally lugubrious in song, Harrison sounds 
completely sincere in this sad, unhurried epic 
written for but unused by The Beatles, whom it 
probably also addresses: "Isn't it a pity how we 
break each other's hearts and cause each other 
pain," functioning as a long goodbye to his for- 
mer band. John Barham’s stirring orchestration 
points his lament heavenward. The use of Hey 
Jude's "na-na-na na" on the fade is a typically 
bittersweet Georgian touch. J/ 


WHEN WE 
WAS FAB 


(from Cloud Nine, 1987) 


George and Jeff Lynne composed this Beatles 
tribute on a lark, “written as a joke" after “bot- 
tles of champagne”. Co-produced with Lynne, 
it’s got Walrus-ish cellos, a sitar, glorious har- 


monies and, most importantly, Ringo on drums. 


Sinatra, Dylan, You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me 
and Within You Without You refs add period 
vibes. The song yielded one of Harrison’s finest 
videos, directed by Godley & Creme, loaded 
with Fab Four in-jokes and guests Ringo, Lynne, 
Elton John and Beatles aide Neil Aspinall. MSi 





In the shade: Harrison 
thinking for himself, 


LONG LONG 
LONG 


(from The White Album, 1968) 


Written in Rishikesh 
where 
Transcendental 
Meditation deep- 
ened his spiritual 
search, Harrison 
modelled his song of 
non-specific praise 
on Dylan’s Sad-Eyed 
Lady Of The 
Lowlands, achingly plaintive despite its F major 
key. Coloured in the studio by Paul’s churchy 
Hammond and Ringo's subtly dramatic drum 
fills, serendipity intervened in the fade as an 
organ note set a bottle of Blue Nun atop the 
Leslie soeaker reverberating eerily as George 
sighed, spectrally cross-echoing with The White 
Album's other haunted moods. MS 


THINK FOR 
YOOR SELF 


(from Rubber Soul, 1965) 


If Harrison’s songwriting gifts arrived initially 
through Beatle osmosis, then here it’s John he’s 
channelling. Dig the bitter romantic sentiments 
(that chilling demand to “rectify” past mistakes 
— ouch) and compositional quirks — no fixed key, 
an asymmetrical metre to the verses, the unex- 
pected shift from A minor to C7 for the groov- 
ing chorus. McCartney’s pioneering fuzz bass 
overdub is much admired, but deflects from 2 


MOJO 69 


Acapulco, January 1977. 


Handle with care: 
George with one 
of his Siamese cats 
at home in Esher. 


<< the fact the lead guitarist himself sees no 
requirement for a lead guitar break. A brilliant, 
intuitively psychedelic bridge to Revolver. PG 


WAH-WARFI 
(from The Concert For 
Bangladesh, 1971) 


Written back home 
in Esher the after- 
noon Harrison 
flounced out of The 
Beatles at lunchtime 
on January 10, 1969, 
Wah-Wah alternates 
bilious moan and 
shackles-off shout, 
! raucous brass 
bouncing off a double-drum-powered up-yours 
guitar riff. In the studio his reedy voice was sub- 
merged in Phil Spector’s hyper-reverbed all-star 
big band wall of sound, but on-stage George bit 
harder. Wah-Wah kicked off his Concert For 
Bangladesh set, the resentful kid brother loud 
and proud at last. MS 





BLOE JAY WAY 


(from Magical Mystery Tour, 
1967) 


Drowsily sketched 
out in a rented LA 
house while the jet- 
lagged Harrison 
€ waited up for press 
. ___ officer Derek Taylor, 
~~ this yawning drone 
_ builds into an acci- 
— — dental elegy for the 
Bit 3 Summer of Love. 
Uneasy details - fog, ambiguously lost friends, 
that inexplicable proliferation of policemen “on 
the street” — are intensified by time-distorting 
phasing, stalking cello and pleading, disembod- 
ied vocals (“please don’t be long”). Even without 
knowing that its creepy-crawl insinuations drew 













MEN LI 
Unlocking the door: 


Harrison in 1970. 


Charles Manson’s attentions, you can detect the 
sound of the counter-culture taking a terrifying 
wrong turn. VS 


BEWARE OF 
DARKNESS 


(from All Things Must Pass, 1970) 


Had it been on a Beatles album, this beautiful 
ballad would still rank among the band’s best. 
Deep, sophisticated, with gorgeous chord 
changes and an almost Brian Wilson-esque 
melancholy and grandeur - but also a touch 
of Harrisonian anger. The lyrics, inspired by 
anti-materialist Krishna teachings, might well 
contain a dig at John, Paul and their lawyers/ 
managers, while those Weeping Atlas Cedar 
trees denote George's new preoccupation with 
gardens. Musicians include Ringo, Clapton, 
Bobby Whitlock and Dave Mason. SS 


WITHIN YOO 
WITHOUT YOO 


(from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts 
Club Band, 1967) 


Of the trilogy of 
- Indian classical 
. tracks George 
| Harrison made as 
a Beatle, Within 
* You Without You 
| surpasses Love 
You To and The 
EN Inner Light mainly 
=“ because it intro- 
duced the more to Raga Rock Proper - no 
exotic ‘mergers’ of sitar, tabla and standard 
4/4 rhythm, as rock's other best-and-brightest 
then offered, but the real thing, without a single 
chord change, mesmerising. It opened side two 
of the most celebrated album of the '60s and 
was heard by nearly everybody. DD 


STOCK INSIDE 
^ CLOOD 


(from Brainwashed, 2002) 





A song of valediction, an ailing man detail- 

ing his mental and physical isolation and his 
body's failings ("Never slept so little... lost my 
concentration... lost my will to eat... talking to 
myself..."). But gradually, you realise, this is also 
a song about the comforts of songwriting, the 
cloud in question both medical and musical. In 
the end, it's Harrison the philosopher admitting 
he has no answers, just music. The posthumous 
All Things embroidery from Jeff Lynne and 
Dhani Harrison confirms this beautifully. AM 








IF I NEEDED 
SOMEONE 


(from Rubber Soul, 1965) 


If the fractal pulse 

of Ticket To Ride 

was the harbinger, 

here was the first 

echt psychedelic 

Beatles track. 

| Harrison shoots a 

| chiming 12-string 

B riff he'd half-nicked 
~ off The Byrds 

through me prism of his spring '65 encounter 

with acid dentist John Riley and the vocal 

harmonies do the rest. A spirit of, if not exactly 

free love, then at least laissez-faire, imbues 

the lyric: George isn't interested in you that 

way right now, but he'll keep your offer in 

mind. Like, cheers. DE 


ГО HAVE YOO 
ANYTIME 


(from All Things Must Pass, 1970) 





Harrison's 1968 visit with Dylan in Woodstock 
was initially awkward. When guitars came out, 
each was desirous of the other's strengths: 
George wanted lyrical insight, while Bob was 
interested in chord changes. After showing 
Dylan major seventh, diminished and 
augmented chords, Harrison wrote the 
opening couplet, "Let me in here/l know l've 
been here/Let me into your heart", as an invita- 
tion for Bob to loosen up. Dylan reciprocated 
with the bridge, ending with “I'd have you any- 
time." It's a song about seduction in a budding 
non-carnal friendship. MSi 


TAXMAN 


(from Revolver, 1966) 


Harrison would argue that his issues with the 
IR had as much to do with government spend- 
ing (for instance, on defence) as Britain's 9596 
top rate per se. Meanwhile, his tirade is made 
more universal (and fun) by its wit ("If you take 
a walk, I'll tax your feet") and pneumatic riff 
attack, the perfect (ahem) Start to the new 
hipster universe that was Revolver. His lyric 
(abetted by Lennon) can be enjoyed anew 

in Junior Parker's leisurely, yet appalled 1970 
cover (“...and this is awful..."). DE 


HANDLE 

WITH CARE 

(from Traveling Wilburys 
Volume One, 1988) 


This tale of love, 
„% loneliness and 
career exhaustion 
= might have been 
ШШ a mere CD single 

* B-side if Jeff Lynne 
hadn't suggested 
Roy Orbison sit in or 
they hadn't recorded 

Анин at Bob Dylan's 

Malibu studio and mic Tom Petty along. 
Delivered solely by Harrison, the song's 
cataloguing of middle-aged rock-star woes 
(“Overexposed, commercialised") might have 
sounded like more sour grapes but with 
Harrison, Orbison, and Dylan sharing vocals it 
becomes a song of mutual support, of friend- 
ship, of famous men sharing their fears and 
failures together. AM 


Bob Whitaker/Camera Press, Wolfgang Heilemann/Camera Press 






I: a! 
1 
/ 


WHILE MY | 
GOITAR GENTLY 
WEEPS 


(from The Beatles, 1968) 


A gorgeous minor-key dirge about human woe, 
initiated by the | Ching and the phrase “gently 
weeps” taken from a random book. The demo 
heard on Anthology 3 contains the lines, “I look 
from the wings at the play you are staging/ 
While I’m sitting here doing nothing but age- 
ing”, implying more frustration with Harrison’s 
sidelining in The Beatles. He invited Eric Clapton 
to play the keening lead guitar, betting on 

the others’ best behaviour in front of company. 
The bet paid off. MSi 


ALL THINGS 
MOST PASS 


(from All Things Must Pass, 1970) 


How typical of its author’s modesty that after 
having this song desultorily abandoned 

during Get Back/Let It Be, he should then insist 
that Billy Preston record and release it first. 
Written in awe of The Band and Timothy Leary’s 
psychedelicised Taoism, for all the arrange- 
ment's simple majesty - Preston and Starr in 
resolute lockstep, Bobby Keys and Jim Price’s 





Life and Times: The Beatles dress up in preparation 
for working like dogs, 1964; (above) George meets 
a Blue Meanie at a premiere of Yellow Submarine, 
July 8, 1968. 


stoned fanfare, Pete Drake’s pedal steel sprin- 
kling quicksilver magic - it's Harrison's seraphic 
vocal that ultimately turns the eternal lights on. 
He knew ATMP would be worth the wait. KC 


ITS ALL 
TOO MUCTI 


(from Yellow Submarine, 1969) 


It was Harrison, not 
Lennon, who cap- 
tained The Beatles' 
truest account of 
the LSD experience. 
E Shelvedfortwo 

& years, this chaotic, 
self-produced, post- 
d Pepper jam journeys 

` from sun-bright 
euphoria (that Hammond reveille) to fuzz, clat- 
ter and collapse: the ragged group chant of 
"Tooo much" suggests people keen to get off 
the ride. The duel between acid-rock overload 
and cheery Pepperland trumpets epitomises 
English psychedelia's peculiar blend of tran- 
scendence and whimsy: "Show me that I’m 
everywhere and get me home for tea." DL 





MY SWEET 
LORD 


(from All Things Must Pass, 1970) 





It’s thrilling from the 
first strum - five 
hands across 30 
strings, what George 
called “опе huge 
guitar." From there, 
it's one continuous 
mystical sound 
vibration, yearning 

> upwards with 
ragged, beseeching vocals and harmonised 
slide electrics. By the fade, you're so blissed out 
you don't even realise you're singing "Hare Hare, 
Guru Vishnu." Fifty years on, we all accept the 
"subconscious plagiarism" verdict. But really, 
Harrison borrowed a few bricks from a pop song 
and built the Taj Mahal. BDM 


HERE COMES 
THE SON 


(from Abbey Road, 1969) 


Gp FLARJHC HS 
ARA, TITERS АНН pct 


In the spring of '69, his bandmates at a business 
meeting, George bunked off to Eric Clapton's 
house. In his sunny Surrey garden on a bor- 
rowed guitar he wrote this, recording it with 
Paul and Ringo in July. Warm, mellow, opti- 
mistic, summery, everything about it – words, 
music, mood - is out of whack with the dark, 
moody Harrison who quit The Beatles (for a 
bit) in January. Note the Indian influence in its 
changing time signatures and meditative sing- 
along mantra: "Sun, sun, sun, here it comes." SS 


SOMETHING 


(from Abbey Road, 1969) 


Songwriters aim to 
express the inex- 
| pressible. George 
did something clev- 
erer. He celebrated 
it. And by leaning 
FES on non-specific 
АТ, У pronouns, his lyric 
| « struck a universal 
! | - ı chord. Meanwhile, 
the music - "the nicest melody tune l've 
written," he said - plumbed deeper, further, 
speaking words of woo as it slid along a chord 
progression as hypnotic as Escher's staircase. 
This personal best was matched by Paul's on 
bass - a wildly freestyle line whose counter- 
melodies sound like hearts thumping in 
breathless anticipation. BDM => 








John Aizlewood, Keith Cameron, Bill DeMain, Dave 
DiMartino, Tom Doyle, Danny Eccleston, Pat Gilbert, Jim 
Irvin, Dorian Lynskey, Andrew Male, Jon Savage, Victoria 
Segal, Michael Simmons, Sylvie Simmons, Mat Snow. 


John Launois/Camera Press, Getty 


MOJO 71 





Northern soul: George 
Harrison backstage in 1965, 
working up a solo on his 
Gretsch Tennessean; (below) 
with Paul McCartney during 
The Beatles' 1966 US tour. 









L 


GUITARIST” 
Never before printed in full, S 
words on the 10th anniversary of his bandmate's untimely 


death cut to the heart of the creative relationships in 
The Beatles. "George a/ways brought something to 













































all the songs,” he told 


N2011, FORAGEORGE HARRISON 
cover story around the release of Martin 
Scorsese's Living In The Material World 
documentary, Paul McCartney picked 
up the phone and spoke to MOJO at 


length. Since there was a lot of Harrison's life 





and career and an army of top interviewees 
to fit in, only а quote or two was used in the 
piece. len years later, with Harrison once 
again gracing the cover of MOJO, here at last 
is the director's cut of McCartney's chat with 
Michael Simmons... 


Louise Harrison [George's sister] told methat 
their parents taught them to be trusting, and 
that when George was young, he was a very 
trusting person. Sheimplied thatit made him 
vulnerable. Does that ring true? 


| would think of it more like loyal. Trusting? Mmm, 
| don’t know. His elder sister would see him 
differently than his contemporary mates on the 
street would. So it depends what you're talking 
about. If it was charlatans, he would definitely 
not be trusting and he was quick to spot them. 
But he was a very loyal guy; anybody he liked he 
was very loyal to. (Laughs) But there were a lot of 
things he didn’t trust. He was super-canny. He 
had an eye out for the fakes. 


Years ago, John was quoted 
as saying that George was 
‘the kid’ when The Beatles 
began and that John treated 
George as such. How long 
did that last? 

It probably lasted a couple of 
years. Just because of his age, 
ina group of men who've 
grown up together, particu- 
larly roundabout their teenage 
years — age matters. In John's 
case, who was three years older 
than George -that meant a lot. 
John was probably a bit 
embarrassed at having sort of 
‘a young kid’ around just'cos 
that happens in a bunch of 
guys. It lasted for a little while. 
It was particularly noticeable 
when George got deported for 
being underage from 
Hamburg. Otherwise, when he 
first joined the group, he was a 


very fresh-faced looking kid. | remember 
introducing him to John and thinking, “Wow, 
there’s alittle bit of an age difference.” It wasn’t 
so much for me ‘cos | was kind of in the middle. 
But as we grew up ії ceased to make a difference. 
Those kind of differences iron themselves out. 


What about George's process іп the studio? 
Do you recall any moments where he brought 
something in or madea song click? 


Oh yeah, sure. There were quite a few. |I would 
think immediately of my song And | Love Нег 
which | broughtin pretty much as a finished 
song. But George put on do-do-do-dooo (sings 
the signature riff) which is very much a part ofthe 
song. Y'know, the opening riff. That, to me, made 
astunning differenceto the song and whenever 
| play the song now! remember the moment 
George came up with thatlittle riff. We were quite 
collaborative in the studio so we might have 
worked it out together. From memory | just 
remember George pretty much throwing that in. 
That song would not be the same without it. 

| thinka lot of his solos were very distinctive 
and made the records. He didn't sound like any 
other guitarist. The very early days we were really 
kids and we didn’t think at all professionally. We 
were just kids being led through this amazing 
wonderland of the music business. We didn't 
know how it went at all - a fact that I'm kind of 
glad of ’cos| think it meant that we made it up. So 
we ended up making things up that people then 
would later emulate rather than us emulating 
stuff that we'd been told. 

In the very early days, it was pretty exciting. 
|I remember going to auditions at Decca and each 
of us did pretty well, y'know. We were in a pub 
afterwards having a drinkand kind of debriefing 
and coming down offthe excitement, but we 
were still pretty high off it all. And | remember 
sitting at the bar with George and it became kind 
of a fun thing for us for years later, it was like, 
(adopts awed voice) “When you sang Take Good 
Care Of My Baby, it was amazin’, тап!” I'm not 
sure we Said “man” or even “amazing” inthose 
days. But... that was a special little moment and 
it just became a sort of, (awed voice again) "When 
you sang Take Good Care Of My Baby...” 


George played a classical nylon-string guitar 
on And I Love Her. I recall George getting into 
Andrés Segovia for a bit. Does that ring a bell? 


| think ‘fora bit’ is the operative phrase. We fell in 
love with the guitar and we didn’t discriminate. It 
could be a Spanish guitar, a classical guitar. >> 


MOJO 73 


Getty, Bb Bonis 


Mptvimages/Eyevine, Camera Press/ED/JM 


The kid done good: the young 
George with his first guitar; 
(right) Harrison celebrating 


TTA 
“йү x» 
ESE 


اا کے 


his 21st birthday, February 25, 


1964, with Beatles fan club 


secretary Bettina Rose. 


= It could bea Gretsch, a Fender, a Gibson. We 
kind of loved them all. It was like a dream, it was 
like walking through Santa's grotto. There was a 
great sense of wonder for us. | remember so 
clearly being at Pete Best's mother's club - the 
Casbah in West Derby in Liverpool - and George 
came in and he opened upthislong, rectangular 
box. It turned out to be a guitar case. We wouldn't 
have guessed there was a guitar in there 'cos 'til 
then you hadn't seen theselong rectangular 
cases which are now perfectly normal; we'd seen 
guitar-shaped cases. And he opened upthis long 
box and in there was... I’m not sure if it was a 
Fender.| think it might have been a lookalike, a 
cheaper copy. But man, it looked good. It looked 
so glorious. Moments like that were very special. 
We were in love with guitar, of any kind. 

George andl used to do this little thing, which 
isthe J.S. Bach thing. | think it’s called Fugue or 
something (sings Bach's Bourrée in E minor). We 
didn't know it all but we learned the first little bit. 
We made the end up. We didn't havethe record, 
we just [played it] from memory. But somehow 
one of us had figured it. What we liked about it 
was that it was harder than some of the stuff we 
were playing, it was part of our development, ‘cos 
it was two lines working against each other. 
You've got the melody (sings) and then you get a 
sort of (sings) bassline working against it. 

| tell audiences now that was what gave me 
the start of Blackbird. It’s not the same notes but 
| took the style of there being a bass melody and 
a treble melody in the same guitar piece and 
made up the song Blackbird from that. | clearly 
remember George and | used to sit around doing 
our own version of this Bach thing. It was like a 
little party piece, it was a little something to show 
that we weren't just (adopts pompous voice) 
one-dimensional. It was a little show-off thing. 

The point I'm coming back to is that, yeah, we 


74 MOJO 


were aware of classical 
guitar players. |I was a big 
fan of Julian Bream -and | 
think George was too - 
who was a British classical 
guitarist. We used anything 
we could get our hands on 
for ideas, so for instance - 
me - that kind of thing 
would lead to Blackbird. 

The other very 
influential piece is a piece 
by Chet Atkins that wetried 
to learn called Trambone 
-trombone with an ‘a’. That 
isanicelittle bit of country 
picking. And that'sthe 
same thing – there's two things going on. You 
got a bassline and the treble line. None of us 
quite mastered that except a guy called Colin 
[Manley] out of the Remo Four. For us that was 
the high spot of their act when Colin just did this 
instrumental. But the point I'm making is that all 
these lovely little things were little turn-ons and 
we assimilated them all into our music. So we 
definitely weren't snobs. 


There's something I’ve been curious about 
for 45 years. On And Your Bird Can Sing, is 
that you or George playing the guitar riff? 


| think it’s me and George playing in harmony. 
That was one of the things we used todo. It's a 
harmony riff. | remember talking to Rusty 
[Anderson], my guitar player. He’d go, “Ahhh, 
that’s how you do it!” George and! would work 
outa melody line, then! would work out the 
harmony to it. So we'd do it as a piece. And 
Your Bird Can Sing - that’s what that is. That's 
me and George both playing electric guitars. 
It’s just the two of us live. It’s a lot easier to do 


McCARTNEY 


l MS i = | 
E. JULLAN BREAN 


Ф. 








DAUL 
with two people, 


believe me.It's another 
one of ourlittle tricks! 


Any other moments where 
George really brought 
something tothe song? 


| think George always brought 
something toallthe songs. 
Justthat one comes to mind. 
l'd haveto sit down, listen to 
the tracks and go, "Ah, there's 
aGeorge moment." The great 
thing is that me, George and 
John originally had a little 
set-up with justthe three of us 
onthree guitars. That was our 
first kinda little incarnation. And we would go to 
talent shows and lose them with that line-up 
(chuckles). So what | mean is any of us could take 
the guitar parts. So, for instance, | Feel Fine was 
John's riff and started off by him leaning the 
guitar inadvertently against an amp and it fed 
back so we used that into the (sings the opening 
riff). But often opening riffs – certainly solos – 
would be George. І could go through 'em all and 
just say, "That's George, that's George, that's 
George." 'Cos I was there you know (chuckles). 


Sol hear. 


Would it be 10 years since his passing? | cannot 
believe that.’Cos how long have I known him? 
What, 50 years, | think? Having met George 

ona bus where he really was a little schoolkid, 
accentuated by the fact we both had little school 
uniforms on. And coming through all of that and 
being mates on the bus and finding we hada 
love of guitars in common, introducing him to 
John on the top deck of a double-decker bus, 
him playing [Bill Justis’s] Raunchy. And then him 


“He had an eye out for the 
fakes”: Harrison in 1987; 
(left, top) The Beatles at 
Abbey Road Studios in 1964, 
George cradling the And I 
Love Her guitar; (below) 
sitar George in 1966. 








getting in the group, going out to Hamburg, 
honing our style and the material that we would 
later do on our first album. And then later, 
y'know, just keeping on developing. It’s fabulous 
‘cos | think one ofthe real interesting things 
about our story is that we did keep on moving. 
We didn't juststay in one style. The Beatles 
albums are amazingly sort of varied; they just 
keep going. And of course George was a huge 
part of that. We could swap onto guitars so | 
could play some stuff occasionally. But it would 
normally work out, y'know, that if I had an idea 
for something | would tell itto George and he 
would pretty much play it. Or if John had an idea 
then George being the lead guitarist would play 
it. Or we individually would just do it ‘cos it was 
quicker. We could mix and match. But most of the 
guitar signature sound is George. 


Of George’s compositions, which is the first 
one that knocked you out? 


He never brought anything to the studio until 
Don't Bother Me and we thought, "Wow, that's 
really good,” ‘cos it had been John and | writing 
stuff. So | thought that was really good. Later, 
when he brought If | Needed Something... 


If | Needed Someone. 


Ifl Needed Someone. Yeah, Something's another 
one. I've melded ‘em (laughs). I| thought that was 
a landmark. | think then Something and Here 
Comes The Sun - he'd gone right up there and 
was now atop standard writer. 


Did George’s increasing songwriting output 
by The White Album contribute to his 
unhappiness with The Beatles? 


Yeah, possibly. | remember him talking about А// 
Things Must Pass as diarrhoea. That was his own 
affectionate way of describing that he'd had alot 


of stuff stored up and it had to come out.I| mean | 
don’t think I'd describe it like that (laughs). But | 
know what he meant. He now was writing 
furiously - great things, like Isn't It A Pity. Some of 
them made it with us. Within You Without You is 
like completely landmark, | would say, in Western 
recording. Norwegian Wood - the sitar on that. 
They were definitely hugeinfluences in Western 
music. Inner Light is a beautiful song. | think ol’ 
Jeff Lynne did a really good job on it on the [2002 
tribute show] Concert For George. 

George probably didfeel left out. Butthere 
was only so much room on an album. You gotta 
remember we made albums that were only 40 
minutes long. And John and were writin’ 
some... (pauses) ...good stuff. And Ringo had to 
haveatrack; we'd alwaystry and include a Ringo 
track. Soit didn't leave as much room for George 
as perhaps he would've liked but then he went 
onto record it all himself. 

But you know, you can't have everything. It 
was The Beatles’ career and for each of us to have 
been in The Beatles was pretty amazing and 
pretty cool. If it didn’t work out how each 
individual would've wanted it to, then it's... 
(pauses) ...it’s just too bad really because what 
happened was so good. | think what George did 
within The Beatles was phenomenal, so! think 
you kinda have to leave it there. 


The bickering doesn’t matter at the end of the 
day, does it? 


No. You know! remember having an argument 
with a member of my family, one of my kids once, 
in front of someone. And it was a bit, “Oh my God, 
what's going on here?" It was embarrassing but 
we both had afairly strong point of view about 
something. And | was brought down by it -we 
both were. A friend of mine said, “Y'know what 
Paul, it proves you're a family.” It proves you're a 


real family. And that’s the truth about The 
Beatles. You have to lookat it like that. We each 
had very strong opinions. If you look at us 
individually, | mean c'mon - give it up. John 
Lennon. Paul McCartney. George Harrison, Ringo 
Starr. You look at us all individually – that's a 
bunch of talentin a room. And a bunch of egos. 
So they’re not just gonna get on like apple pie. 
There is going to be the odd argument - and 
there were. Sometimes they were minor about, 
y'know, turning up guitars (laughs). George and 
John were very cute because they both had their 
amps side by side and you'd see one of them just 
sort of sneakoverto the amplifiers, just add one 
degree and then you'd see him walk back like 
nothing had happened. And then you'd see John 
had noticed and John would casually walk over 
and put his up two degrees. (Laughs) "You've 
fucking turned up man!” “What? | never did!” 
"Yeah you fucking did!” So there’s all that and 
then there was more serious things towards the 
end which were basically business things. And of 
course І had the ultimate bad role of having to 
save everyone from the wolf. That led to all sorts 
of unpleasant arguments and things. 


l'm assuming that's Allen Klein. 


Yeah, yeah. He's not with us any more sol try not 
to walk on the dead man's grave. But it was the 
truth and everyone knows it. We had to be saved 
and unfortunately it fell to me. But | think it was 
the right thing. The current success of The Beatles 
has proved that. We wouldn't have anywhere 
nearthe amount of control we have now. Rather 
like The Rolling Stones don’t. On Hot Rocks. 
Which they don’t own. (Laughs) We were headed 
that way. So that caused alot of unpleasantness. 
But as | say, it proved we were a family. 

But hey! gotta go. And I'll just leave you 
with this note (plays a note on flute). 


Ө 


МО)О 75 


Camera Press/Thomas Picton, Gered Mankovwtz, © David Hurn/Magnum Photos 








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MOJO FILTET 


YOUR GUIDE TO THE MONTH'S BEST MUSIC 


EDITED BY JENNY BULLEY jenny.bulley@bauermedia.co.uk 


[I 





ALBUMS 


The surreal deal: Aldous Harding 
King Hannah's wraparound debut 
Johnny Marr doubles down 
Dizzyingly good: Destroyer 
Plus, Judy Collins, Swamp Dogg, Loop, 
Robert Glasper, Midlake, Lia Ices, Yoko Ono, 
Melt Yourself Down, Thurston Moore, 
Park Jiha and more. 


REISSUES 


Son House: missing link to the 
Delta blues 

The beauty myth: Ornette Coleman 

File Under: Irma Thomas rarities 

Plus, Pink Floyd, Karen Dalton, Herbie 
Nichols, Todd Rundgren, Goodbye Mr 
Mackenzie, Spirit, Franz Ferdinand and more. 


BOOKS 


Great American guitarist Bill Frisell 
Plus, an oral history of heavy metal, Shirley 
Collins, Swell Maps, Frank Zappa and more. 


SCREEN 


Get Back on Blu-Ray: Yes, MORE Beatles. 





Place To Bury Haigh, Robert 82 | Pictish Trail 85 
Strangers, A 80 | Harding, Aldous 78 | Pink Floyd 97 
Babeheaven 89 | Hutchins, Loney 97 | Rother, Michael & 

Bell, Andy 82 | Hval, Jenny 83 | Maccabruni, Vittoria 87 
Binker & Moses 89 | Ices, Lia 83 | Smith, Sammi 97 
BooRadleys, The 80 | Jiha, Park 84 | SonHouse 92 
Bowness, Tim and Johnstone, Davey 81 Soul Revivers 88 
Erra, Giancarlo 95 King Hannah 82 Spirit 97 
Braufman, Alan 97 | Koné,Rokia & Lee, Stillman, Robert 87 
Cameron, Alex 83 | Jacknife 87 | Superchunk 87 
caroline 89 Lady Wray 87 | SwampDogg 80 
CMAT 82 | Lazy Eyes, The 84 | Taylor, Cecil 95 
Coleman, Ornette 95 | Lemonheads 98 | Taylor, James 88 
Collins, Judy 84 | Leschper, Kristine 84 | Taylor, Sean 85 
Complex 94 Lo Moon 85 Tears For Fears 88 
Cypress Hill 89 Loop 80 | Thomas, Irma 96 
Dalton, Karen 98 Marr, Johnny 81 Tristano, Lennie 97 
Deserta 81 Mattiel 89 | Trupa Trupa 83 
Destroyer 86 | Mayall, John 83 | Unclaimed, The 97 
Flür, Wolfgang 84 | McHone, Carson 81 VA Mainstream Funk 94 
Forsyth, Keeley 85 Melt Yourself Down 85 | VAOcean Child 83 
Franz Ferdinand 95 | Metronomy 88 | VARevoltintoStyle 94 
Gang Of Youths 81 Midlake 83 | VATheStudio Wizardry 
Glasper, Robert 89 | MonochromeSet The 82 | OfToddRundgren 94 
Gonora Sounds 87 Moon Panda 85 | VASwedish Pop 94 
Goodbye Mr Moore, Thurston 84 | VAUn-Scene! 98 
Mackenzie 94 | Moss, Sam 95 | Vedder, Eddie 88 
Greenhill, Briony 88 | Mysterines, The 88 | Weather Station, The 84 
Guided By Voices 80 | Nichols, Herbie 94 | Widowspeak 87 


MOJO 77 


FILTER ALBUMS 





Michelle Henning 


78 MOJO 


Cracked Actor 





Who will the New Zealand shapeshifter channel this time? Bowie? PJ. Neil 
Tom Doyle marvels at a singer of many voices. Illustration: Vince Pastiche. 


Aldous Harding 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Warm Chris 


4AD. CD/DL/LP 


б б Ү OU KNOW people that Гуе been," 





sings Aldous Harding in a close-up 
whisper, eight tracks into her fourth 

album, amid the floaty, light acoustic '60s pop 
arrangement of Staring At The Henry Moore. It's 
likely a statement for a friend or intimate, but it 
might just as easily be one directed at us, the 
listeners to her songs, which typically feature a 
diverse cast of vocal characters. Slipping into the 
lineage of Tom Waits, (particularly Berlin trilogy- 
era) David Bowie and P.J. Harvey, Harding assumes 
the position of singer-as-actor, often sounding like 
not the same vocalist — or even the same person 
— within the space of two consecutive performances. 

It's clearly empowering for Aldous Harding to 
adopt this air of theatricality and these personae, not least the one 
of Aldous Harding herself. New Zealand-born Hannah Topp has 
admitted that, since beginning to operate as Harding in 2014, she's 
grown increasingly wary of her creation. “I trust myself musically,” 
she told MOJO 306, “but I'm not sure I trust the woman who's 
taken on this thing. I think there's moments of clear fragility." 

Some of that vulnerability was evident in the more personal- 
sounding lines on her brilliant third album, 2019's Designer, 
particularly in the weary bossa nova of Weight Of The Planets: 
“Youre lost and it's sucking you out.” Here, however, in the opening 
track of its successor, to the accompaniment 
of her percussive, chopsticks-style piano 
part, she comes across as determined not to 
be tossed around by emotional turmoil. 
Ennui, she airily declares, “сап see no point 
to send to me". 

Eight years on from the stark gothic folk 
of her self-titled debut album, Harding in 
fact sounds light years away from the 


"It's clearly 
empowering 
for Aldous 
Harding to 
adopt these 
personae.” 





BACK STORY: 
OF THIS 
PARISH 

e As a producer, John 
Parish’s (above) recent 
credits include Dry 
Cleaning and The Goon 
Sax, but his three-album 
association with Aldous 
Harding is clearly a 
creatively fruitful one, 
mirroring in some ways 
his 34-year-long, on-off 
working relationship 
with P.J. Harvey. “John 
has the strange gift of 
recognising a song's 
essence," Harding tells 
MOJO. "Like a nameless 
sense. He's never told me 
what that's like for him. 
| feel our relationship, 
one ofthe most 
important in my life, has 
been built ona silent 
communication between 
our individual gifts. He 
may disagree, which... 
would be perfect.” 





tremulous-voiced individual who sang of 
finding “no peace at all”. “Oh the dirty 
of it/Ripped the label,” she mischievously 
growls in Tick Tock, in the bassy, tarry 
tones of Lou Reed. It’s testament to her 
actorly chops throughout that, sometimes 
in the same song, her voice glides along 
the gender spectrum: Vashti Bunyan one 
minute, John Cale the next. 

In her early songs Harding often 
sounded mysteriously Welsh, and then 
fulfilled that sense of predestiny by actually 
moving to Wales. Warm Chris is her second 
album recorded in her chosen homeland 
and her third produced by long-standing 
P.J. Harvey collaborator John Parish. It was 
made, like Designer, at the rural Rockfield 
Studios in Monmouthshire (setting for 
landmark recordings by such disparate acts 
as Queen, Hawkwind and Oasis), where 
Parish played guitar, keyboards and drums, 
and marshalled Harding and a great band 


comprising multi-instrumentalist Huw 





Evans, AKA H. Hawkline, adaptable horn-player 
Gavin Fitzjohn and former Sons Of Kemet 
drummer Seb Rochford. The result is minimal, 
precise arrangements rendered in a warm, 

"705 hi-fi production. 

On first listen, Warm Chris is less obviously 
immediate than Designer, though the songs don’t take 
long to worm their way into the mind. The album's 
skittish first single Lawn — vocal style: Harding as 
: wide-eyed English ingénue — isn't typical of the rest 

= E ofthe record, but its flashes of lyrical humour are. 
| “Time flies when you're writing B-sides,” she trills, 
whether digging at herself or A.N. Other. 

Harding tells MOJO (see Q&A page 80) that she 
was far more interested in the sound of words than 
their meaning on this album, but she's clearly 
having a lot of fun here, seemingly drifting into 
incoherent Geordie-speak in Ennui (“No ‘one look’ 
and a canny fucking fill”) or making vague, weird 
promises in Leathery Whip (“ГІІ be all day getting 
the velvet back to you, Bambi”). 

If there’s one track in which we might get a 
glimpse of the “real” Harding, or perhaps even Hannah Topp (much 
as we probably did in her 2017 breakthrough single, Imagining My 
Man), it’s the slinky, staccato-grooved Fever. Although she stays 
pretty much in Nico mode, there are moments when we can almost 
hear Harding break character, as she relates a fractured narrative 
that takes place in an atmosphere of heat haze and smoke and 
complicated feelings. She meets someone in a hotel reception, they 
spend 11 days together in a hot city, but still she can’t help staring 
at her lover in the dark, “looking for that thrill in the nothing”. 

Romantic entanglements return in Passion Babe, where 
Harding’s accent seems to travel north to some indeterminate 
point in Scandinavia, and she plays the drawling, jaded wife: 
“Well, you know I married/And I was bored out of my mind”. 

Her push-me-pull-me delivery is light-hearted and excellently 
entertaining, but it also underlines the exactness of her vocal parts 
throughout. Here is a singer who as soon as she opens her mouth 
is very much focused and in the moment. 

Harding’s most surprising vocal on Warm Chris comes with 
piano ballad She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain, where she’s 
uncannily possessed by the aching-voiced Neil Young of Helpless 
or After The Gold Rush. Partway through, H. Hawkline’s broken- 
sounding banjo arrives to accompany the piano arpeggios and the 
hauntingly lonesome country effect is fully realised. 

At the other end of the scale, Harding turns time-weathered 
bluesman in the chorus of closer Leathery Whip (theme: life as a 
lash-wielding punisher) as a second, male voice joins her in the left 
speaker, mimicking her swampy southern American tones. 
Staggeringly, it turns out to belong to none other than Sleaford 
Mods’ Jason Williamson. Factor in Harding’s own helium-high 
interjections and it’s all in all brilliantly daft and darkly cartoonish. 

If, for some, Harding’s modus operandi might sound a bit like a 
deep dive into the dress-up box, and perhaps a tad inauthentic, 
then her sheer, method actor-like intensity snufts out that 
argument, along with the revealing glimpses of raw emotion. In 
the second verse of Leathery Whip, she makes a plea — “Baby go 
lightly/I feel me tightening up” — and you can hear Topp more 
cautiously pulling Harding’s strings. Ultimately, though, as with all 
things Aldous Harding, it’s a dazzling performance. Expect the 
ovations for her to echo down the years. 


HARDING ON MINIMALISM, 


GHOSTS & SLEAFORD MODS. 














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All wrapped up: Aldous 


— Harding focused on 
“риге phonics” for 


E "A her fourth LP. 
— | | get 


“I went back and forth 


with the visions." 
Aldous Harding speaks to Tom Doyle. 


What was your general approach to writing these new songs? 
Were they written in an intensive burst in one place or in fits 
and starts in different places? 


"| think of my songs as deep secrets the muse has been keeping 
from me. Writing feels more like reading. A lot of itis done in 
silence. Winning a 'good song' comes secondary to spending time 
with the person doing me [the] favour of making it. | focused on 
pure phonics more than any other record. | needed the sound, 
not the meaning of the word to stand alone as a poem against 

its backgrounds. Sound alone as poems. So, instead of trying to 
show the universe in a lyric, letting the sound of the instruments 
decide them for me." 


The arrangements on Warm Chris are very minimalist. 
Do you abhor sonic clutter? 


“I’m dubious about anything beyond my own voice and my 
instrument. I'm absolutely brave enough to release the phone 
recordings as they are but sadly not stupid enough. It can be hard 
to watch them grow past my own limitations. Like watching 
someone out-parent you in front of your children, in front of 
yourself. John Parish will confirm this. | almost went swirling into 
the drum kit when he suggested the beautiful electric guitar you 
hear on Imagining Му Man [оп 2017's Party]. I'm also biased 
towards layers so... who knows." 


You seem to deliver each song as a different character. 
How do you decide upon and develop each voice? 


"From what | can make out it comes from deep in the references. 
Remembering too that there are more individual voices than 
words in my memory. | try to stay with the voice once I've started, 
unless | or John think | might be in trouble." 


Any recurring lyrical themes for you on the album? 
"| won't go back and read through them!” 


You returned to Rockfield Studios in Wales for this record. 
Why do you like it there, and does the history of the many 
great albums made there add to the appeal? 


"Of course. | laugh when | hear about the things those halls have 
seen. | find it impressively modest in every way but its history. It's 
one of my favourite places on earth. It feels like stepping onto a 
ship. Mostly l'm occupied with taking my own modest steps so 
there's not a lot of time to talk to the ghosts of the greats!” 


There's a lot of reptilian imagery in the video for Lawn, and 
a photo of a tortoise in the artwork. What's the attraction? 


"A select few became an integral part of the record for reasons 
unknown to me. | went back and forth with the vision until finally 
| gave in. It was decided in bed at my mother's house." 


Your vocal on She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain sounds 
Neil Young-esque. Was that intentional? 


"Not intentional - more necessary. | couldn't have started or 
finished that song without those records." 


Jason Williamson is unrecognisable on Leathery Whip. 
Why did you decide he was the man for the job? 


"| saw him play at Panama Festival [in Tasmania] and was taken 
by his poetic ability and physicality. We talked for a few minutes, 
and | walked away already writing him an e-mail in my head.” 


80 MOJO 


NW! 








A Place To Bury 
Strangers 


ЖЖЖЖ 
See Through You 


DEDSTRANGE. DL/LP 


Real-deal NYC noise-pop 
three-piece remain 
untamed. 


Where nu-gaze 
is often far too 
eager to 
please, offer- 
ing but a timid 
approximation 
of the original turn-of-the-'90s 
shoegazers, APTBS always feel 
like the genuine article. Sole 
mainstay Oliver Ackermann, 
who tellingly also works as 

an FX pedal architect, clearly 
understands that to make a 
feedback-pop omelette, many 
eggs have to meet a brutal 
demise. His sixth album in 20 
years unveils an umpteenth 
rhythm section, but presents 
a wholly unsanitised vision, 
where screeching white noise 
guitars eclipse thundering 
beats in a reverb dungeon far 
from prissy 'Health & Safety' 
regulation. While Ackermann 
audibly still hasn't recovered 
from hearing the JAMC's late- 
'80s B-sides darkfest Barbed 
Wire Kisses (see Let's See Each 
Other, etc), and Hold On Tight 
even mirrors Sidewalking's 
pedestrian-in-rain outsider 
imagery, fabulous shafts of 
light shoot in late on, as 
beachy I Don't Know How You 
Do It and New Order-esque 
Love Reaches Out conclude 
with unforeseen blue-sky 
optimism. 

Andrew Perry 


IHE EE 
The Boo Radleys 


ЖЖЖ 
Keep On With Falling 


BOOSTR. CD/DL/LP 


Former shoegazers' first 
new LP since 1998. 


=, : 2 Though absent 
TS ч „Ж (С original guitar- 
‘ay oe Ej Ж ist and chief 

3 a, Pa songwriter 
КА Martin Carr is 


— still flying solo, 
Воо со frontman Simon 
'Sice' Rowbottom, bassist Tim 
Brown and drummer Rob 
Cieka re-awoke Boo last 
summer. Exploring euthanasia 
and alcoholism, their 2021 EP A 
Full Syringe And Memories Of 
You broke new thematic 
ground, with the trademark 
ebullience that once made the 
Boos ubiquitous on breakfast- 
time radio largely absent. 
Melodically, at least, Keep On 
With Falling lets the sunshine 
back in, its bright melodies, 
glockenspiel glints and occa- 
sional reggae and ska motifs 
warming, even if the title track 
is a disavowal of religion, and 
the (bad) Karma Police-like | 
Can't Be What You Want Me To 
Be details a stalled relation- 
ship. Great that they are back 
on their own label, on their 
own terms, but some 
of these "Hemocratically 
produced" recordings want 
for a ruthless arbitrator. 


James McNair 





Guided By Voices 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Crystal Nuns Cathedral 


GBV INC. CD/DL/LP 


Ninth album in three years, 
12 songs in 38 minutes... 
but it’s a good ‘un! 


Robert Pol- 
lard’s troop, 
unlike post- 
millennial 
garage-rockers 
Osees and Ty 
Segall, have rarely deviated far 
from their original script, 
bashing out neo-classical 
punk-pop-rock, often at the 
lower end of the audio fidelity 
spectrum. Post-2012 re-forma- 
tion productivity has only 
intensified lately: where last 
year's Earth Man Blues and It's 
Not Them... gloriously nailed 
GBV's rapid-fire gem-shower 
brief, CNC eases towards more 
sophisticated, thought-out, 
and unabashedly epic song 
construction. Given Pollard's 
Who fixation, it's less Meaty, 
Beaty..., more Quadrophenia, 
administered by a firing line- 
up featuring ace guitarists 
Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare 
Jr., who magisterially navigate 
Re-Develop's crunchy time 
signature, Birds In The Pipe's 
psychedelic eccentricity and 
Excited Ones' transition from 
two-chord bop-along to 
wonkily exploratory bridge. 
Expertly interwoven orchestra- 
tion on smouldering opener 
Eye City and Climbing A Ramp 
doesn't stop the rock, but 
actually boosts its authorita- 
tive power. Thirty-five albums 
in, incredibly, GBV are still 
scaling new heights. 

Andrew Perry 





ШШЩ 
Loop 


ЖЖЖЖ 


Sonancy 
COOKING VINYL. CD/DL/LP 


London late-’80s space- 
rockers’ first full earth 
mission in 32 years. 


When opener 
МЕЙ Interference 
Za riffs on one 
fA crunching 
chord for 57 
seconds, then 
ШЕП; diverts to a second, 
only to return to the first again 
(a pattern sustained for four 
mesmerising minutes), it's 
clear that Robert Hampson's 


Loop: back 
with six-string 
hypnosis intact. 


newly-staffed Loop will not be 
deviating from their original 
minimalist logic. After 1990's 
valedictory A Gilded Eternity, 
Hampson, both as Main and 
under his own name, relin- 
quished guitars in favour of 
synth drones and musique 
concréte, so this much-delayed 
fourth outing marks a hearty 
resumption of six-string hyp- 
nosis, superbly underpinned 
by a rhythm section (loaned 
from Bristolian cadets The 
Heads) battering out beats 
variously inspired by Kraut-y 
motorik (Eolian; Fermion), 
and on brain-busters Supra, 
Halo and Aurora, post-punk 
invention à /a Bunnymen and 
Killing Joke. With most cuts 
clocking in under five minutes, 
Sonancy's austere precision 
carries right through to its 
auteur's Chrome-esque robo 
voicing. Rarely has measured 
maturity led to such aurally 
altered states. 

Andrew Perry 


Inm HH HE G 


Swamp Dogg 


ЖЖЖ 

| Need А Job... 

5o | Can Buy More 
Auto- [une 


DON GIOVANNI. CD/DL/LP 


Cult soul man's gazillionth 
genre-bending album. 


mem ltseems 

} 79-year-old 
| iconoclast 
| Swamp Dogg 
has finally 
* been caught in 
a Catch 22. Obviously, a follow- 
up to 2018's Love, Loss And 
Auto-Tune, so many of these 
new songs are drenched in the 
pitch-altering software that it’s 
impossible to know whether 
his fixation is born of despair 
or fascination. Like the later- 
life albums of many artists, 
the worldly experience Dogg 
brings to love ballad Soul To 
Blessed Soul and other tracks 
gives them a moral weight that 
can’t be faked. From the deep 
soul of She Got That Fire to | 
Need Your Body's freaky funk, 
Dogg runs the gamut of his 
career, and if it wasn't for a 
heavy hand on the pitch but- 
ton, Cheating All Over Again 
could be as great as Curtis 
Mayfield's final recordings. 
Too often, however, it's just 
too hard to get past that 
artificially wobbly voice. 

Andy Fyfe 















ЖЖЖЖ 


Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 


BMG. CD/DL/LP 


TOWARDS THE end of the writing process 
for Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, Johnny Marr was 
struggling with a song idea but couldn't nail 
it: it was too mannered, too indirect. He 
began thinking of songwriters who wrote, 
unmediated, from their heart, and he came 
up with two names: Bob Marley and John 
Lennon. Understandably feeling he couldn't 
credibly “pull off” a Tuff Gong vibe, he 


instead transported himself into a Lennon 


Shiver 


and 
shake 


It's back to the future for 
the ex-Smith on an epic —— 
adventure into the dark nooks ! 
of his psyche. By Pat Gilbert. 


Johnny Marr 





JOHNNY MARA 


Bg y Pc eee OPE ктш t= OU. 





KR 


e. ч Des, — m 2 











mindset, and out flowed a composition called 


Human, a stirring acoustic meditation — 
before swelling into a glistening darkwave 
behemoth — that opened up about the pain 
that he, and we, so often disguise from the 
world. Later that day, with mind-bending 
synchronicity, a package from none other 
than Yoko Ono turned up at his house 
containing 2021's Plastic Ono Band remaster. 





ЖЖЖЖ 
Still Life 


LOOSE. CD/DL/LP 


Third LP makes good on early 
promise, and then some. 


For five years Austin's Carson 
McHone has been a staple of 
'ones to watch' New Year pre- 
dictors, her country-tinged 
songs touching emotions 
rarely available to other song- 
writers. On 2019's Carousel 
McHone hinted that she had 
far wider musical ambitions, 
but it barely forewarned of 
the wonders revealed here. 
The album leaps from popping 
Southern soul horns and 
greasy sax to poignant piano 
balladry, discordant psyche- 
delic guitar or, on the star- 
tlingly spartan closing track, 
Tried, just a single guitar string 
plucked with slowly building 
ferocity, while McHone pours 





her heart out about cancelled 
promises, poor choices (hers 
and others), emotional 
ambushes and sweet surren- 
der. The touchstone influences 
— Aimee Mann, Frazey Ford, 
Ann Peebles - barely begin to 
scratch the surface of the 
musical depths McHone mines 
on Still Life, which finally 
moves her on from being just 
'one to watch' to the woman of 
the moment. 

Andy Fyfe 


11111111111 
Deserta 


ЖЖЖЖ 


Every Moment, 
Everything You Need 


FELTE. CD/DL/LP 


Former Father John Misty 
collaborator’s second dose 
of shoegazey drama. 


Shoegazers 
typically 
promote FX- 
loaded guitars 
over standout 
vocals and 
lyrics, but Matthew Doty is a 
noisemaker with a need to 
communicate. His one-man 
battalion (voice, guitars, keys, 
programmed beats) outsizes 
even the likes of Slowdive, 
Sigur Rós and Mogwai, but if 
the opening title Lost In The 
Weight is one translation of 





тіпа...) and in feisty fuzz-rocker Tenement 
Time's evocations of Marr running wild as a 


the genre, knowing Doty's 
particular backstory shines a 
whole different light on his 
words. Deserta's 2020 debut, 
Black Aura My Sun, was inspired 
by impending fatherhood, but 
as a healthcare worker by day 
as well as father and musician, 
2020 over-delivered to the 
point that Every Moment... 
is surely the first shoegaze 
album with PTSD. Its sound 
reflects the galaxies above yet 
the likes of l'm So Tired and Far 
From Over document reality 
on the ground, a gripping tour 
de force on different levels. 
Martin Aston 


Gang Of Youths 
ЖЖ 


Angel In Realtime 
WARNER. CD/DL/LP 


Aussie transplant five-piece 
overcook things at their 
Hackney studio. 


Massive back 
in their native 
Sydney, Aus- 
tralia, Gang Of 
Youths moved 
to Angel, north 
London in 2017. With its sam- 
pled use of Pacific Island choir 
recordings that the English 
musicologist David Fanshawe 
feared would be lost to coloni- 
alism, the band's dense, synth- 


“А sign if ever there was 
one," he notes. 

If we are going to take 
Fever Dreams’ title literally, 
then Human, the closing 
track, represents the delirium finally passing 
after over 70 minutes of otherwise full-on, 
ultra-modern electro-rock. Conceived to 
reflect the inward journey that Marr 
experienced during Covid lockdowns, here 
sequencers, doomy synths and strident 
dancefloor beats boldly augment the angular 
post-punk guitar sounds of his three 2010s 
albums — The Messenger, Playland and Call The 
Comet — as Johnny explores an unsettling 
interior universe. 

In the best traditions of English psychedelia 
— and the hypnagogic, immersive feel of this 
album certainly justifies that description — 
childhood and memory play a strong part in 
the hallucinogenic narratives, not least in the 
eerie spoken-word intro to Rubicon (“Just to 
understand like a child/AIl the pictures in your 


gem 





Johnny Marr: — 
he gives us 
Ееуег... – апа ° 
quite a lot of it. 


ЕУ 






> 





boy in Manchester’s inner-city slums. 


Musically, too, you'll detect subtle echoes 


of the guitarist's past, from opener Spirit, 
Power And Soul sounding a little like Johnny's 
teenage guitar tutor Billy Duffy (of Cult 
renown) chiming, goth-like, over a Dead Or 
Alive track, to the punchy Receiver attacking 
at disco tempo the icy melody of Joy Division's 
A Means To An End. Counter-Clock World — 
taking lockdown's temporal weirdness as its 
theme — skitters along cheekily, like a lost '80s 
Pete Shelley solo track. 

Perhaps the greatest advance of Fever Dreams 
— whose sonic grandeur, it's tempting to think, 
links to Marr's work with Hans Zimmer on 


the latest Bond soundtrack — is the guitarist's 





heavy third album has an 
awful lot going on. Largely 
concerned with the passing of 
their part-Samoan frontman 
David Le’aupepe’s father Tele- 
so, and part-coloured by the 
Christian megachurch milieu 
in which Gang Of Youths was 
formed, the record’s well- 
meaning earnestness is a little 
overwhelming, but it’s the 
stuffed-crust arrangements 
that really grate, everything 
happening at once, and often 
for too long. Nine songs in, 
Brothers, just piano and vocal, 
disinters one of the perfectly 
decent compositions that are 
bricked-in elsewhere, 
Le’aupepe singing movingly of 
the brothers he never knew he 
had until his father’s passing. 
James McNair 


LLL 


Davey Johnstone 
Band 


ЖЖЖ 
Deeper Than My Roots 


CHERRY RED. CD/DL 


First solo album in 49 years 
from Elton John's guitarist 
and musical director. 


A veteran of over 3,000 shows 
with Elton John, Davey John- 
stone's solo career has been 
on hold since 1973's winsome 
Smiling Face. All these years 


voice, now matured into a wise, reassuring and 
increasingly characterful baritone. But — and 
it’s a big ‘but’ — while tracks like The Whirl, 
Receiver, Sensory Street and Human are 
among Marr’s most impressive, Fever Dreams is 
too long, uniform and persistent to enjoy in 
one sitting. Perhaps best, then, to take your 
time and discover its sparkling delirium in its 
4 x 12-inch singles form. 


later, the 70-year-old Scot has 
taken advantage of John’s 
farewell tour’s postponements 
to have another go. Although 
John’s drummer Nigel Olsson 
guests on Melting Snow, it’s 
a family affair: Johnstone’s 
16-year-old son Elliot sings 
most of the songs, three other 
sons play and a daughter 
designed the cover. For all the 
occasionally clunky lyrics 
(“I realise that we are climbing 
the rungs of love”), it’s an 
overwhelmingly good- 
natured, echo-swamped 
affair packed with dreamy 
harmonies and languid 
arrangements which suggest 
Jack Johnson as much as David 
Crosby. There’s a tasteful take 
on Here, There & Everywhere, 
but Boxer In The Corner rocks 
surprisingly hard, while instru- 
mentals Walt Dizney [sic] and 
the sitar-and-synthesizer 
infused Black Scotland pack 
quite the punch. 

John Aizlewood 





MOJO 81 


Hope amid the 
daily grind: King 
Hannah's Craig 
Whittle (left) and 
Hannah Merrick. 







an я T Uh 
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Come as 


Liverpool duo nail their true 
colours to the mast. 
By Victoria Segal. 


King Hannah 


ЖЖЖЖ 
I'm Not Sorry, | Was 
Just Being Me 


CITY SLANG. CD/DL/LP 


THERE’S SOMETHING very touching about 
It’s Me And You, Kid, the final track on King 
Hannah’s debut album. A love song to the 
band and bond that singer Hannah Merrick 
and guitarist Craig Whittle forged after 



























ои are 


working shifts together in a “gross 
bar” in Liverpool, it’s a statement 
of hope in the face of daily grind, a bold 
declaration that King Hannah is now their 
place in the world. *We're doing it so that we 
can live our whole lives just doing this," sings 
Merrick over rangy, diffuse Pixies guitars, 
before setting off a chant of, "I'm all I'm ever 
going to be." 

King Hannah might be the band least 
likely to be retraining in cyber any time soon: 
from the title down, I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just 
Being Me is a record committed to building its 
own wraparound world, a '90s mood indigo 
inspired by Portishead, Mazzy Star and 
P.J. Harvey right down by the water. There 


are shades, too, of shoegazing, alt-country 
and the crepe-soled, Cave-haired school 
of imaginary film soundtracks. 

Merrick's smoke-ring vocals (Whittle 


noticed her at a student music night long 


before they were brought together by the 





service industry) rarely become agitated; 
the lyrics are unforced, unadorned, 
conversational to the point of artlessness. 
“When I was a kid/I wet the bed,” she sings 
on АП Being Fine; the bitterly funny Big Big 
Baby begins, “1 heard you got a lady 





pregnant". There are references to 


"researching things to buy online", or 


Whittle doing *a nice impression of a man 
who messaged me" — the mundane stuff of 
life pushed through their atmospheric filter. 


Yet there is a tension here, lurking in the 
disconnect between Merrick's nonchalant 
vocals and the simmerin 
volatility of the music, one that 
creates the sense of people 
holding it all together on the 
mutual understanding that it 
could fall apart at any moment. 
]he Moods That I Get In or 
the callow Sour Times of 
Foolius Caesar fall into old 
patterns of relationship 
behaviour, while the thinned- 
out trip-hop blues of A Well-Made Woman 
quickly shows its vulnerability: “I want to be 
a mother one day." There's a sweet nostalgia 
for their lost youths on Go-Kart Kid (HELL 
NO!) and Ants Crawling On An Apple Stork 
(spelling artists’ own), but it comes with the 
feeling of something always being lost: “What 
a time to waste, our time.” 

With I'm Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me, 
they try to pin it all back down, keep it in 
place, make it work for them. You can take it, 
or you can leave it, they suggest, but close the 
door on your way out. Whether it's all King 
Hannah are ever going to be is their call, but 
for now, it's more than enough. 





Andy Bell 
ЖЖЖЖ 


Flicker 
SONIC CATHEDRAL. DL/LP 


More exemplary post- 
shoegazing rock from the 
Ride guitarist. 


The photo on the cover of 
Andy Bell’s second solo album 
is a previously unseen outtake 
from the inner sleeve of Ride’s 
1990 debut Nowhere, and 
some of the songs originate 
from around that time. Bell 
first revisited them in 2016 
with Oasis/Beady Eye band- 
mate Gem Archer, then fin- 
ished them after completing 
his 2020 first solo outing The 
View From Halfway Down. He 
describes them as a conversa- 
tion with his teenage self; a 
post-therapy Bell healing the 
inner child with washes of 
supine sound. The result is 


Katie Silvester 


82 MOJO 





Proustian, the 18 tracks an 
overwhelming rush of joy 
perfectly crystallised in 
Something Like Love - a kind 
of answer record to Ride's 
Vapour Trail, a soothing balm 
to the latter's heartbreak and 
angst - and It Gets Easier's 
expansive pop noise fuelled by 
escapist dreaming. 

Lois Wilson 


I HH 
CMAT 


ЖЖЖЖ 
If My Wife Knew 
I'd Be Dead 


AWAL. CD/DL/LP 


Hyper-reality pop debut 
from nuts-or-genius 
songwriter. 


E Is there a lyric 
| that screams 
mE ‘millennial’ 
| louder than, 





KE o: didn't cry 
when someone | grew up with 
died/But | break down every 
time I’m on the scales"? It's not 
a conventional pop star lyric, 
but CMAT - 25-year-old Dub- 
liner Ciara Mary-Alice Thomp- 
son - isn't conventional. Since 
her self-directed, tongue-in- 
cheek videos began appearing 
on YouTube, Thompson's artis- 
tic voice has grown stronger 


and stronger, capturing but 
not defined by the mental 
health issues she wears on the 
sleeve of her tasselled shirts. 
Gifted with a knack for 
sparkling toplines and galaxy- 
class choruses, the way she 
twines narrative threads into 
cathartic, surrealist Lana Del 
Rey songs is remarkable. Five 
minutes in her personal 
company would likely be 
exhausting, but for this 
album's duration her brain 
salad music is fantastical. 

Andy Fyfe 


LLL 
Robert Haigh 
ЖЖЖЖ 


Human Remains 
UNSEEN WORLDS. DL/LP 


The electronics innovator 
bids adieu with elliptical, 
pensive piano pieces. 


Robert Haigh 
has come and 
| gone through 
ade many phases in 
four decades. 
There was 
post-adolescent glam, then a 
post-punk foray. A flirtation 
with dark electronics led to his 
pioneering "ambient jungle" 
— graceful as it was aggressive 
— as Omni Trio. But after 
Human Remains, the last instal- 


ment in a trilogy of brooding 
and beautiful piano albums, he 
intends to turn from music to 
painting for good. It's an 
exquisite farewell, at least: 
several of these brief pieces, 
especially Twilight Flowers, 
feel like tenderly melancholy 
reflections on distant memo- 
ries. Occasional electronics, as 
on Lost Albion, enhance that 
gentle sense of haunting. Stick 
around for two final flashes of 
brilliance. A piano line snags 
against a roaring string section 
on Baroque Atom, with Haigh 
teasing a climax that never 
comes. And the finale, On 
Terminus Hill, condenses Sigur 
Ros’ vintage grandeur into 
a short sigh that lingers, a 
bittersweet goodbye. 

Grayson Haver Currin 


ШИПИ 
The 
Monochrome Set 


KKK 
Allhallowtide 


TAPETE. CD/DL/LP 


Venerable post-punk 
individualists keep it 
distinctive. 


Allhallowtide ends with Para- 
pluie, a piano instrumental 
where the only other sound is 
the pitter-pat of rain. It's a 
fittingly reflective end to The 


Monochrome Set's sixteenth 
album. There's a lot to look 
back on. After emerging in 
1978 as idiosyncratic post- 
punks, as much informed by 
Lou Reed and The Shadows as 
bossa nova, there have been 
stops and starts but Allhallow- 
tide's main participants are 
original members Bid and 
Andy Warren. During 1, Serv- 
ant, Bid sings, "Servitude is 
wonderful... bondage is 
witchery”, yet there's no evi- 
dence of history as a straight- 
jacket. The spy theme-tinged 
Hello, Save Me retains their 
mid-'80s liveliness, while 
Moon Garden shimmers with 
an irrepressible romantic 
yearning. For long-time fans, 
the albums most evoked are 
the mid-'90s brace, Charade 
and Misére. The Monochrome 
Set remain unmistakeably 
themselves. 


Kieron Tyler 





Barbara FG 





Alex Cameron 


Oxy Music 


SECRETLY CANADIAN. CD/DL/LP 


Co-writing a fistful of recent- 
ish Killers songs brought Alex 
Cameron to mainstream 
attention, but the Sydney 
native has been quietly 
constructing a wry solo 
career since 2013's Jumping 
The Shark, where he assumed 
the persona of a far-from 
beloved entertainer. Fourth 
time around, he's embraced 
a lush, harmony-drenched 
sound akin to late-period 
Fleetwood Mac or even the 
outer reaches of yacht rock. 
Yet, it's underpinned by 
biting, literate lyrics and 
mostly crestfallen characters. 
He asks, "Who told my brother 
that his kids are gonna die 
from this vaccine?" on the 
fabulous Sara Jo; he duets 
with Sleaford Mods leader 
Jason Williamson on the 
fentanyl dependency saga 
that is the title track; and he 
reminds us that "there's only 
room for one in a K hole" 
on K Hole. He's a marriage of 
opposites (there's even a rap 
of sorts on Cancel Culture), 
but feels built to last. 

John Aizlewood 





Trupa Trupa 


B Flat A 


GLITTERBEAT. CD/DL/LP 


The first three tracks of this 
sinewy sixth album revisit 

the taut post-hardcore that 
earned Grzegorz Kwiatkowski's 
muscular quartet the reductive 
but appealing soubriquet 'the 
Polish Fugazi’. The next five 
take them into new territory. 
Lines brings a clear (and all 

the more welcome for its 
unexpectedness) echo of 
mid-period Pink Floyd to 

the table. Uniforms' sinister 
singalong chorus, “I wanna 

be all my uniforms" also 
showcases serious stadium- 
rock potential, while All And 

All could be one of those 


tantalising McCartney new 
song fragments in Get Back. 
When that woozy melodic 
miasma kicks into the 
ferocious moshpit churn of 
Uselessness - imagine Fire 
Dances-era Killing Joke asked 
to write a song about Covid-19 
in an unspecified second 
language - it feels like Trupa 
Trupa have cracked it. 

Ben Thompson 


Inn n HH N GN 
John Mayall 


The Sun Is Shining 
Down 
FORTY BELOW. CD/DL/LP 


EX Few jobs 

| require as 
much profes- 
sional misery 
as being а 
veteran blues- 
8 and love is 
still doing him wrong - the 
first four songs are full of 
cheatin' women, busted hearts 
and angry phone calls (no one 
sends a text in the blues). 
Happily, later he starts to 
cheer up: he's still dreaming 
of One Special Lady and the 
title track salutes his happy 
Californian home. All this is 
backed by Mayall's traditional 
blues-boogie and spiced 

with guest axemen offering 
minor variants on B.B. King/ 
Albert King string-bending. 

A shot of rootsy fiddle from 
Scarlet Rivera makes a refresh- 
ing change.Little here would 





Midlake 


For | he Sake Of 


Bethel Woods 


BELLA UNION. CD/DL/LP 


IT’S BEEN more than eight years since 
Midlake's last album. Then again, they never 
bombarded us with records even during a 
heyday when their second and third albums 
— The Trials Of Van Occupanther (2006) and 
Ihe Courage Of Others (2010) — brought Fleet 
Foxes-level acclaim. 2013's Antiphon followed 
lead singer/writer Tim Smith's exit and Eric 
Pulido's move to frontman, and though more 
conventionally indie-rock, the trademark 
harmonies and instrumental textures 
remained. But that was that, until For The 
Sake Of Bethel Woods, apparently inspired by 
a dream keyboardist Jesse Chandler had in 
which his recently-deceased father urged him 
to reunite the band; the sleeve is of his dad in 
his youth at Woodstock (hence the title). The 
music? It's good: at times dreamily 
pensive (Noble), at others a kind of 
psychedelic prog (Gone), layered, 
sophisticated and melodic, 
especially Glistening and Of Desire. 


Sylvie Simmons 


be out of place on a Mayall 
record of the 1960s; while 
partners may be fickle, 
Mayall and the blues are 
wedded for life. 

John Bungey 


ULE 
Jenny Hval 


Classic Objects 


4AD. CD/DL/LP 


On its surface, 
Classic Objects 
comes across 
as chill-out 

С. X rave pop. But 
* X" as the voice 
beds in - clean and glass-like 
— а different impression 
emerges. Among its lyrics, 
opening track Year Of Love 
offers up: "We were married 
on a rainy day... it's justfor 
contractual reasons." This 
progressively intense album, 
the first on 4AD from Norway's 
Jenny Hval, charts snapshots 
from this multi-faceted artist's 
life (she also works in visual 
settings and has written 
novels). While the musical 
framing cleaves to the familiar, 
the album title refers to past 
events and situations as if 
they were inanimate entities. 
Correspondingly, Hval's 
etiolated delivery brings 

a distance from what's 
recounted, rendering this as 
an unsettling experience. 
Under Hval's microscope, 

the seemingly straightforward 
is anything but. 





Kieron Tyler 





FILTER ALBUMS 


A fats 





Lia Ices 


Family Album 


NATURAL MUSIC. CD/DL/LP 


From Connecticut, but a 
graduate of London's RADA, 
Lia Ices specialises in an 
appealing hybrid of winsome 
folky psychedelia, Enya's 
painstaking layering and a 
Mary Margaret O'Hara way 
with a vocal flutter. Fuelled by 
motherhood, a move to 
northern California with her 
wine-maker husband, and a 
re-assertion of her piano 
playing over the electronica 
which pumped through 2014's 
Ices, Family Album was released 
in the US early last year, the 
final work of producer (and 
half of the band Girls) Chet JR' 
White, who died in October 
2020. He was at the peak of his 
powers here, enabling the 
beauty of his client's intricate 
but accessible world. Best 
comes last with the glorious 
Our Time, where choruses pile 
into one another and Ices’ 
piano anchors her vocal 
flights, before it builds into a 
heroic climax. 

John Aizlewood 





Various 


Ocean Child: 
Songs Of Yoko Ono 


CANVASBACK MUSIC/ATLANTIC. 
CD/DL/LP 


Orchestrated 
by Death Cab 
For Cutie's Ben- 
jamin Gibbard, 
this compila- 
NN X tion was 
conceived both as birthday 
celebration for Yoko Ono and 
consciousness-raising exercise 
for her music. Frustrated that 

— even after decades of re- 
evaluation - Ono's work was 
underestimated and over- 
looked, Gibbard has enlisted 
an intriguing cast of contribu- 
tors to redress the balance. 
David Byrne and Yo La Tengo 
catch Who Has Seen The 
Wind?’s Renaissance mistiness; 
The Flaming Lips heat and cool 
Mrs Lennon; Sharon Van Etten 
finds the undertow in 
Toyboat's deceptively sweet 
hum. There are more radical 
realignments, such as Thao 
beefing up the antique pop of 
Yellow Girl (Stand By For Life) 
or Deerhoof accelerating No 
No No's thready agitation. 
Closer tributes include Stephin 
Merritt's Listen, The Snow Is 
Falling or Death Cab For Cutie's 
cosmically perky Waiting For 
The Sunrise. Ocean Child 
achieves its aim - emphasising 
the vibrant depth of Yoko 
Ono's (approximately) 

infinite universe. 

Victoria Segal 









Midlake: seeing 
the wood from 


the trees. 


Ты Р 
« E 
ж 


MOJO 83 


Off the wall: Park 
Jiha lurches from 


wafting ambience to 
ratcheting tension. 











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| 
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| 








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pulsing grooves of a 
yanggeum (hammered 
dulcimer) and almost 
synth-like tones of a 
saenghwang (mouth 
organ). Both are deployed amid the 
sparse refrains of Temporary 
Inertia, the intense Reich-like 


| two-part Sunrise 
. reinforce Jiha's ability 
to convey deep emotion 
- using very few notes 
= (and zero percussion) 
as she lurches from waiting 
ambience to ratcheting tension, 
often within the same song. Packed 












ЖЖЖ Ж 
The Gleam 


TAK:TIL/GLITTERBEAT. CD/DL/LP 


ааа 


Korean multi-instrumentalist's 
third LP explores the intersection 
between music and light. 








PARTLY CONCEIVED for architect 
Tadao Ando's exhibition of a light- 
moving bunker in Wonju's Museum 
SAN, Park Jiha's latest majors on the 


Marcin T Jozefiak 


Judy Collins 


ЖЖЖ 
Spellbound 


CLEOPATRA. CD/DL 


Rebirth and renaissance at 
82: Collins’ first completely 
self-penned LP. 






the onset of 
Collins’ ninth 





repetitions of The Way Of Spiritual 
Breath and below surface Jaws-ish 
pulse of Light Way. Elsewhere, spare 
deployment of a piri (a type of 


oboe) on At Dawn and the moving 


Kristine Leschper 
ЖЖЖЖ 

Тће Opening, Or 
Closing Of A Door 


ANTI-. CD/DL/LP 


Mothers songwriter's 
baroque-pop solo project. 


tet Mothers 





The Weather 
Station 

ЖЖЖЖ 

How Is It That | Should 
Look At The Stars 


FAT POSSUM. CD/DL/LP 
Stellar overdrive: ballad- 


and emotional 


with moments of intense reflection, 
with melodies straddling the ancient 
and modern, The Gleam confirms 
Jiha as a singular talent. 










Andy Cowan 


companion piece, maybe, but 
these songs can stand alone. 
Victoria Segal 


The Lazy Eyes 
ЖЖЖЖ 


Songbook 


| Like Pe i i : i 
a See iesu After steering driven companion piece to LUNATIC ENTERTAINMENT. CD/DL/LP 
a Colli the Athens, 2021's Ignorance. Australi А 
irley Collins, ; | ustralian pop-psyc 
4 SEGUI Tor ; Environmental deus 


voyagers' debut LP is a trip. 


through two As Songbook 
к collapses were g 

| ' decade seems LPs of post- the P E progresses, 
to have triggered a startling punk and anti-folk angularity The Weather thoughts turn 
dE TOUS SHERI ately DOSE Throwing Muses), Kristine Ignorance, themes rich enough 2010's first, 
on her influential role as a Leschper's solo debut opens i landmark, 


commercial conduit for the 
likes of Joni Mitchell and 
Leonard Cohen - hardly taking 
into account her background 
in classical piano and her 
most recognisable hit with a 
Stephen Sondheim song (Send 
In The Clowns) - while her 
own sporadic songwriting 
is predominantly seen as a 
career incidental. This, her first 
complete LP of self-written 
material, serenely lays that 
to rest, wryly recalling her 
younger self in vivid portraits 
like So Alive and When I Was A 
Girl In Colorado, along with a 
moving tribute to pacifist 
activist/Trappist monk Thomas 
Merton and an affectionate 
paean to New York (City Of 
Awakening). It's unashamedly 
nostalgic, but her voice 
remains pure and true. 

Colin Irwin 


84 MOJO 


the door to another world, one 
sculpted by synths, strings, 
woodwind and percussion, in 
which to "explore love songs... 
longing, encouragement, 
connectedness.” The Opening... 
is, by turns, lush (This Anima- 
tion), sparse (Figure & I), 
dream-pop (Blue) and ambient 
(Writhe And Wrestle), with 
exquisite hooks for each 
occasion. These aren't love 
songs, so much as opaque 
impressions ("Frantic pollen 
scatter/It paints your lovely 
pattern and curves along the 
pavement") with moments of 
clarity (Just you and me my 
baby/And our mutual crippling 
self-doubt"). But even when 
Leschper sounds anxious, her 
voice sounds airy and intoxi- 
cating. Far from a closed door, 
she sounds unburdened, free. 
Martin Aston 


to inspire the overspill of 
ballads now filling How Is It 
That Should Look At The Stars. 
Without drums or percussion, 
Tamara Lindeman's voice 

and piano set the vigilant, 
wondering tone; clarinet, 
saxophone and flute allow 
subtle fluctuations in light and 
heat. Endless Time is a human- 
scale meditation on global 
catastrophe, the shame of 
unthinking consumption 
blurred by Joni Mitchell-style 
sensory flashes - "Roses from 
Spain/Lemons and persim- 
mons in December rain". On To 
Talk About, Lindeman tries to 
think bigger than love but 
can't; Sway is a heart-in- mouth 
moment of communion. These 
personal-and-political threads 
knot tightly on Stars, where 
she sings, "I swear to god this 
world will break my heart." A 


Tame Impala album: similarly 
modern psychedelia teaming 
swoony, woozy songs with 
twinkling melodies and a 
hard-edged undertow. Add in 
lush harmonies and a vapor- 
ous, high-register lead voice 
and it's evident The Lazy Eyes 
are in full command of their 
mission. Like Tame Impala, this 
four-piece are Australian but 
from Sydney rather than Perth. 
Their debut album isn't just 
about wah-wah guitar, motorik 
drumming, pixie vocals and 
the psych moves, though. It's 
packed with fully formed, 
memorable songs. Tangerine 
is the kind of pop The Three 
O'Clock used to excel at. The 
drifting Nobody Taught Me 
has a lovely, rolling descend- 
ing melody. That said, most of 
the epic Where's My Brain??? is 
a frazzled instro fusing Neu! 


insistence with wig-out guitar. 
A saucer-eyed treat. 
Kieron Tyler 


Ea 
Thurston Moore 


ЖЖЖ 


Screen [ime 
SOUTHERN LORD. DL/LP 


A guitarist's soundtrack for 
"dream time, meditation, 
nd pillow talk." 


In autumn 
2020, Moore 
released a 

a4: 3 super-charged 

ER ° band double 

Ced = album, By 
The Fire, finished in the early 
months of lockdown. Only in 
summer 2021 did he respond 
fully to the scenario, going the 
opposite way with solo guitar 
instrumentals intending to 
sooth and inspire (the LP title 
is inspired by the atypical view 
that digital media can be ben- 
eficial, by promoting “shared 
exchange") with its bell-like 
tones and drones; not for noth- 
ing did Moore name his own 
label imprint Ecstatic Peace. 
Yet his trademark dissonance 
and tunings introduce uneasy 
faultlines in The Station and 
The Home. After nine songs 
averaging under four minutes, 
Moore closes with The Realiza- 
tion, 10 minutes of converging 
light and dark, and one of the 
finest pieces of music that he 
has put his name to. 
Martin Aston 


a FLÜR 
аади 





Wolfgang Flür 
ЖЖЖЖ 


Magazine | 
CHERRY RED. CD/DL/LP 


Co-created with English 
collaborator Peter Duggal, 
featuring Peter Hook, Midge 
Ure and Claudia Brücken. 


With the passing of Florian, 
and no new music from 
Kraftwerk, it lifts the heart 
when we hear from either Karl 
or Wolfgang from the classic 
line-up. Conceived as an aural 
magazine, to be dipped in and 
out of with a broad appeal, the 
songs have a sort of likeable 
innocence; humanistic and 
quirky. It was often remarked 
that Flür has matinee idol 
looks, and he acts out sections 
of songs on Magazine and 
Best Buy almost as if we have 
a portal into a home movie. 
Zukunftsmusik (Future Music) 
ironically has one of those 
superb electro melodies that 
transports you right back to 
1986, and Das Beat (The Beat) 
sounds like a long-lost Pet 
Shop Boys classic. There's even 
a song called Birmingham. 
Nothing not to like here. 

David Buckley 


Nick Barber 





ама 


Keeley Forsyth 
ЖЖЖЖ 
Limbs 


THE LEAF LABEL. CD/DL/LP 


Oldham artist branches out 
slowly with second album. 


Recorded after a period of 
personal turmoil and ill health, 
Keeley Forsyth’s arresting 2020 
debut Debris bore a clear 
imprint of trauma and grief, an 
austere document of what 
happens when life turns inside 
out. Limbs emphasises the 
same raw materials: 
limewashed harmonium and 
piano; elemental lyrics about 
fire, water and blood, and 
Forsyth’s remarkable voice, a 
close genetic match to Nico, 
Anohni and Haley Fohr. There 
is still a latent violence on Land 
Animal or the spare physicality 
of Blindfolded, but, this time, 
she pushes more of Debris’ 
heavy rubble away from 
her head using expansive 
synthesizers and - on closing 
statement | Stand Alone - a 
more direct performer's gaze. 
"| advance in all directions," 
Forsyth quietly states on the 
title track; with Limbs, she 
stretches out into new space, 
taking as much as she needs 
for these stark, resolute songs. 
Victoria Segal 


1111111111111111 
Lo Moon 


KKK 
A Modern Life 


STRNGR/THIRTY TIGERS. CD/DL/LP 


Second album of sprawling 
Los Angeles dream pop. 


It’s been four 

years since Lo 
Moon's self- 
| titled debut 
album. Since 
| | then, the 
quartet led by Matt Lowell and 
featuring guitarist Sam Stew- 
art (son of Eurythmic Dave and 
Bananarama's Siobhan Fahey 
and the babe in arms in Shake- 
spear's Sister's Heroine video), 
toured extensively, building a 
cult following for their expan- 
sive indie pop, as much in 





thrall to Modern English as My 
Morning Jacket. A Modern Life 
is an upgrade on that debut. 
There's the euphoric rush of 
Raincoats; the closing Stop, 
with its veiled threat, "While 
| sank to the bottom/You sang 
him Dolly Parton/Don't think 
that I’ve forgotten”; and the 
Clocks-era Coldplay piano 
of Dream Never Dies. It’s an 
album to luxuriate in, but 
for all the appealing self- 
loathing of Expectations 
(“It’s getting kinda hard not 
to blame myself"), Lo Moon's 
calling card is Lowell's 
songwriting craft. 

John Aizlewood 


к=: 


Melt Yourself 
Down 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Pray For Ме | Dont 
Fit In 


DECCA. CD/DL/LP 


Trans-global, rave-intensity 
jazz-punk with subversive 
messaging. 


In its best moments, the fourth 
album by Melt Yourself Down 
stirs up a gloriously manic 
chaos, like several wild raves 
raging all at once as pirate 
radio blasts from the window 
of a circling taxi. Led by 
former Acoustic Ladyland 
übermensch Pete Wareham 
(and formerly numbering 
sax-god Shabaka Hutchings 
among their ranks), the 
group's soundclash - 
combining North African funk, 
23 Skidoo-ish percussion- 
forward post-punk, squalling 
brass and other insurgent 
party soundtracks - achieves 
optimum velocity from the off, 
and barely settles for less than 
a vigorous simmer throughout. 
There's plenty to relish within 
the bedlam, however: the sly 
message within the title track's 
Pigbag-gone-Middle Eastern 
mélée, the grinding bass and 
vocals like seditious calls to 
prayer on Boots Of Leather, 
and the taut, motorik vibes of 
Sunset Flip all suggest that this 
divinely danceable riot is 
guided by a higher purpose. 
Stevie Chick 


Lunar tunes: 
Lo Moon make music 
to luxuriate in. 








WHAT ON EARTH 





Moon Panda 


KKK 
What On Earth 


FIERCE PANDA. CD/DL/LP 


Scandi-Californian duo 
make transporting debut. 


Hard not to notice the current 
swell of debutants being billed 
as ‘dream pop’, but the cap 
certainly fits Moon Panda. 
Comprised of Californian 
vocalist/bassist Maddy Myers 
and Danish guitarist Gustav 
Moltke, their calming, 
meticulously stylised sound 
often has that cocooned, new 
snowfall quality, Myers 
pushing through the wardrobe 
to Narnia on Slow Drive, anda 
sweetly tranquillising presence 
on icy, slowcore opener 
Falling. Though the potency of 
a striking, strictly adhered-to 
aesthetic that includes 
electronic textures, weighty 
drums and plenty of space for 
Myers' processed vocals to 
soar and decay wanes a little 
over 11 close-cousin songs, 
you'll want to stay tuned for 
the odd imagery of Rabbit. 
Watch out, too, for Simona 
Mehandzhieva's simpatico 
video for stand-out Vacationer; 
a fantastical animation which 
serves to deepen Moon 
Panda's inherent mystery. 
James McNair 


Pictish Trail 
ЖЖЖЖ 


Island Family 
FIRE. CD/DL/LP 


Johnny Lynch goes stir-crazy 
on the Isle of Eigg. 


For someone 
with an aver- 
sion to the 


. outdoors, the 
beautiful Scot- 
tish island of 


Eigg seems a peculiar place for 
Johnny Lynch, AKA Pictish Trail, 
to make his family home. 
Marooned there during the 
pandemic, he embraced the 
community, and turned to 
writing. The result is the 
sensibly titled /sland Family. 
The electro whimsy which 
underpinned his previous work 
is down-played in favour of 
something harsher, more out 
there; from the scuzzy title 
track to the near-ballad Melody 
Something, via the plinky, 
stripped-down In The Land Of 
The Dead and the woozily 
dreamy Thistle. There's little 
commerciality, although It 
Came Back gallops along 
cheerily, but there is the sense 
of a man doing as he pleases 
and guessing - correctly – he'll 
take his audience with him. 
John Aizlewood 


Ww! Г“ fore l 









AMERICANA 


Sean Taylor 


ЖЖЖЖ 
The Beat Goes On 


SEAN TAYLOR SONGS. CD/DL 


Eleven new songs including one 
based on a Robert Frost poem. 






Taylor's new album finds him once again stuck at home in 
London, working long distance with his Austin-based producer 
and fellow musician Mark Hallman. But where the theme and 
lyrical focus of its predecessor (2021's Lockdown) were more a 
socio-political take on the pandemic - selfishness, prejudice, 
isolationism, greed - The Beat Goes On has a sweetness to its 
gentle, tender tracks (lush, beautiful opener It's Always Love; 
spare, voice-and-piano closer The Heart Of The Ocean) and a 
warmth to its more upbeat songs (Let Kindness Be Your Guide; 
Better Times). Its darkest moment is in the moody Lament For 
The Dead, with its "distant sirens and final breaths", dusty vocals, 
acoustic guitar and cello, but it's lovely too. Once again, the piano 
plays a big part, while there's also some perfectly placed steel 
and a saxophone in the gorgeous, bluesy, nightclub title track. 





| ALSO RELEASED 


Harley Kimbro 
Lewis 


ЖЖЖЖ 


Harley Kimbro Lewis 
HKL RECORDS. CD/DL/LP 


Johnny Dowd 
ЖЖЖЖ 


Homemade Pie 
MOTHER JINX. CD/DL 


Dowd's new album 
(homemade right 
down to the cover 
art) has about 
everything a fan 
could want. Raw and direct, 
somewhat less experimental 
than recent albums, there's a 
slew of slow, dark, stalking 
ballads (Call Me The Wind) and 
creepy zombie blues (Shack). The 
title track, with its growly synth, 
thumping drum and Dowd's 
twisted vocal - strangely 
sugared by backing singer Kim 
Sherwood-Caso - is the perfect 
all-American murder song 
referencing crucifixes and 
homemade pie. 


Cactus Blossoms 


ЖЖЖЖ 
One Day 


WALKIE TALKIE. CD/DL/LP 
x | The flipside to 
x» Dowd's dark, 
deviant Americana 
is this duo from 
ES Minneapolis – 
singing, guitar-playing brothers 
whose sweet, tight sibling 
harmonies and lovely '60s-esque 
pop-country understandably 
bring comparisons to the Everly 
Brothers (Hey Baby; One Day; | 
Could Almost Cry). Here and 
there you hear a touch of 
JJ Cale breeziness and, on Ballad 
Of An Unknown, urban country 
noir with socio-political lyrics. 
Jenny Lewis guests on the 
duet Everybody. 












"mmm Martin Harley, 
1%. Daniel Kimbro and 

| éé Sam Lewis, three 
"к artists who've 

| individually made a 
name in blues and country, got 
together in a studio in East 
Nashville for the roots equivalent 
of a CSN album. A very good 
album it is too - confident and 
varied, with some excellent 
singing and songs ranging from 
insouciant country-blues (What 
To Do) to neo-American 
Songbook (Cowboy In Hawaii) 
and classic country (Neighbors). 


Lost Dog 
Street Band 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Glory 


ANTI-CORP. CD/DL/LP 


This fine album 
opens with the dark 
and droning Until | 
Recoup (Glory |) - 
intense male vocal, 
violin, you could imagine Nico 
singing it - and ends with | 
Believe (Glory 11), churchy 
bluegrass with banjo, fiddle and 
multiple voices. In between, 

on songs that bring to mind 
classic country ballads (Losing 
Again) and sometimes the 
righteous anger of young Steve 
Earle (Fighting Like Hell To Be 
Free), there's a lyrical theme 

of redemption, finding a way 

to the light. SS 


MOJO 85 





IZ 





Destroyer 


Labyrinthitis 


BELLA UNION. CD/DL/LP 


“YOU HAVE to look at it from all angles/Says 
the cubist judge from cubist jail,” sings Dan 
Bejar on June, one of the tightly encrypted 
songs on his thirteenth Destroyer LP. It’s a 
line that could stand as a mission statement 
for the pleasing disorientations of Labyrinthitis 
(named after a vertigo-inducing inner-ear 
disorder) as much as Bejar’s entire career. 
Synth-pop fláneur; torch-song hipster; lo-fi 
poet: Bejar has rarely lacked arresting 
perspectives, a different angle. 

While Labyrinthitis still echoes 2011 
breakthrough Kaputt in its love of New Order, 
The Cure and Associates, these songs come 
mined with surprises. “An explosion is worth 
a hundred million words,” he sings on faintly 
satirical folk coda The Last Song, “and that is 


zy spells | 


greed 


LI 
j T 
i 
j L| 
NT 





maybe too many words 
to say." Here, it feels 

the hyperliterate Bejar 

is trying to up the 
explosions — these songs 
feel a little more reckless, 
their compounds more 
volatile. June busts out in Close (To The Edit) 
playfulness, LCD Soundsystem at the creative 
writing retreat; The States sounds like 
Momus covering Into The Groove before 
radiating out into ambient trance. 

Bejar's lyrics often suggest he's zeroing in 
on a great truth, an epiphany so bright and 
terrible it must be described in sideways 
language, never approached head on. Dread 
seeps through everything. Suffer mentions 
poisonings and *a drowning in the Trevi 
Fountain" while Nick Cave hellscape 
Tintoretto, It’s For You, sounds like a 
Faustian pact being cashed in: *The ceiling's 
on fire and the contract is binding". Eat 
The Wine, Drink The Bread again suggests 
artistic vanity and compromise in the face 
of doom: “I piss on the floor/The band sets 
up on the floor," sings Bejar over oddly 
inappropriate disco. Even a beagle's bark 


















Destroyer’s Dan Bejar: 
looking at things from 
a different angle. 


(“ruff ruff”) is open to 
interpretation. 





There are gentler 
moments — the title track’s 
chirruping instrumental, 
It’s In Your Heart Now’s 
unforced New Order 
euphoria — but at times, 
Bejar’s urgent allusions turn 
Labyrinthitis into a problem 
to be solved, a musical 
Rubik’s cube to twist into line. Does 
Tintoretto, It’s For You evoke electroclash 
as a comment on cycles of hype and 
obsolescence? Does June’s “strike for more 
pay” nod to The Fall’s CN'C-$S Mithering? 
Given this is a man who obscurely named 
2017's Ken after Suede's working title for 
Ihe Wild Ones, it's not impossible — but 
before you know it, you've got red string and 
newspaper cuttings pinned all over the walls, 
tracking meaning like a TV detective hunting 
a serial killer. 

In its way, it's an admirable MO. 
Labyrinthitis is another tantalising Destroyer 
album, one that resists being clutched too 
tight or loved too hard as it roams its peculiar 
world. For those prepared to follow Bejar's 
philosophical loops and cosmic hunches, 
however, it can spin you round, a record 
always on the side of the angles. 








86 MOJO 


Nicolas Bragg 





Rokia Koné & 
Jacknife Lee 


Bamanan 
REAL WORLD. CD/DL/LP 


Stuck in Bamako, where 
pandemic and political 
instability piled curfew upon 
lockdown, Malian singer Koné 
had a half-finished album 
languishing in limbo when she 
received a call from the 
California-based U2/Taylor 
Swift producer Lee, who had 
been inspired by hearing what 
her band's guitarist, Salif Koné, 
had contributed to albums 
by feminist collective Les 
Amazones D'Afrique. "Floored" 
by her vocals, he took the 
multi-tracks from her 
album, stripped away the 
arrangements and replaced 
them with electronics, 
highlighting what he figured 
were the strongest elements, 
discarding the extraneous. 
With more space to breathe, 
the singer's voice is brought to 
the front - it's hard to imagine 
tracks such as Soyi N'galanba 
or Mansa Soyari with wholly 
traditional backing, but here 
they sound positively 
anthemic, even arena-filling, 
while Mayougouba is destined 
to fill club dancefloors the 
world over. 

David Hutcheon 


Michael Rother 
& Vittoria 
Maccabruni 


As Long As The Light 


GRONLAND. CD/DL/LP 


Rother’s first album since 2004, 
Dreaming, arrived under cover 
of 2020's Solo Il box set of later 
work, and here he quickly 
returns for a subdued if deeply 
soothing team-up with his 
partner Maccabruni. During 
that lengthy interim, he 
successfully toured his own 
Neu! show, but his solo music 
only bears comparison with 
more placid, meditative 


E 
—іа па A Rae TIT! 








Hard limes Never Kill 


THE VITAL RECORD. DL/LP 


BLIND ZIMBABWEAN guitarist/ 
singer Daniel Gonora and his 
teenage drummer son Isaac made a 
decent living busking on the streets 
— one suspects all that is about to 


vintage tracks like Weissensee. 
At a guess, As Long As The Light 
was conceived at Rother's 
home in Forst, east Germany, 
before being completed after 
he moved to Pisa in June 2020 
to join Maccabruni. There it 
appears the subtle shifting 
of sunbeam across flora 
became a fascination, as 
expressed in his elegantly 
FX'd, sustain-heavy playing 
here. Maccabruni brings an 
agreeably complementary 
techno perspective, via 
musicbox-style "synth bells" 
(Edgy Smiles), breathy 
coldwave voicing (You Look 
At Me) and See Through's 
ethereal keyboard rippling, 
which recalls both Aphex 
Twin's Selected Ambient Works 
Vol. Il and that hazy mindstate 
between semi-consciousness 
and deepest Sleepyland. 
Andrew Perry 


ИТИИ ИИИНИН 
Robert Stillman 


What Does It Mean 


To Be American? 
ORINDAL. CD/DL/LP 


— Born in Maine, 
Ба A Robert Still- 

ч T man has lived 
lit. in the UK for 


the past dec- 
ade, creating 
music that blends together 
elements of spiritual jazz, 
exotica, and the sound worlds 
of Charles Ives, Van Dyke Parks 
and Harry Partch. For this new 
work he took individual gut- 
level improvisations of tenor 
sax, Clarinet, keyboards and 
drums, then worked them into 


пот oc re] AF 


Gonora Sounds 





individual pieces that interro- 
gate and question his Ameri- 
can identity. If that sounds dry 
and theoretical, the results are 
anything but. Opening track 
Cherry Ocean is eight minutes 
of spectral Surf’s Up rumina- 
tions on landscape and self, 
while other tracks encompass 
everything from psychedelic 
Brass Connection funk to 
Ayler-intense free jazz and 
pastoral New Age, with one 
track, Deep Time USA, sound- 
ing like a euphoric head-on 
collision between Arnold Drey- 
blatt and Ornette Coleman. 
Andrew Male 





Lady Wray 


Piece Of Me 


BIG CROWN. CD/DL/LP 


2016's Queen Alone 
repositioned the former Missy 
Elliott protégé as a classic soul 
singer. With producer Leon 
Michels, she went back to her 
church roots and sang from 
the heart. This follow-up 
builds on that. With Michels 
producing again, its 12 songs, 
mostly autobiographical, 
were written while Wray was 
pregnant, and the title track, 
about the demands of 


change. After film of 
them performing | Я 
caught international § “he Ж 
attention, they were 
picked up bya New Е 
York indie, recruited жа 
extra musicians and singers, and 
recorded nine tracks capturing their 
loose and funky sungura beat. It's 
utterly glorious, from the rumba- 
like guitar lines to the blend of 
sweet vocal harmonies and Gonora's 
rough baritone roar, to the drum 


= 


| A 


4 = 


motherhood, was put down 
in one take just a few weeks 
before she gave birth, Wray in 
a chair pouring her feelings 
out straight. The uncluttered, 
intimate setting is perfect for 
her, that sassy honeyed alto, 
pushed to the fore throughout 
the album, reminiscent of 
Minnie Riperton's at times but 
really her own thing. On the 
heart-stirring Melody, it's just 
voice and gently strummed 
guitar, while piano and drums 
frame the topical Beauty In 
TheFire. 

Lois Wilson 


ШШШ 
Widowspeak 


The Jacket 


CAPTURED TRACKS. CD/DL/LP 


Enveloped in 
its own languid 
mini-universe, 
The Jacket is 
broadly a curi- 
| ous concept 
LP narrated by a member of 
fictional group, Le Tex. Her 
day-job, sewing stage threads 
for country & western, art rock 
and yé-yé covers bands pro- 
vides a window on a scene and 
the backdrop to her own 
band's rise and fall. Back in the 
real world, Molly Hamilton's 
languorous, seductive vocals 
further elevate simple, Velvets- 
meet-The-Cowboy-Junkies 
arrangements, guitar foil Rob- 
ert Earl Thomas entices with 
wobbly curlicue riffs (Salt) and 
minimalist twang (Everything 
Is Simple), and the psych-flute 
motifs on While You Wait keep 
things fresh. If the mood is 





| m 
A 
- 


Gonora Sounds: Daniel 
(guitar ) and younger son 
Proud (drums) bring the 

‚ beat from the street. 






| fills straight from the 
T Keith Moon playbook. 


when your heart won't 


be thumping with the 





David Hutcheon 


sometimes that of Twin Peaks 
oddness in and around the rag 
trade, The Jacket is ultimately 
a meditation on the fleeting 
highs, dashed hopes and 
revised ambitions that define 
most band's careers. 

James McNair 


LLL 
Superchunk 


Wild Loneliness 


MERGE. CD/DL/LP 


Long beloved 
of US poet 
Maggie Smith, 
it transpires 
from her 
accompanying 
biog, Superchunk sound daisy- 
fresh on album number 12. Its 
breezy, rejuvenating melodies 
often contrast with some 
rather stark messages, hence 
exquisite Norman Blake and 
Raymond McGinley-assisted 
climate change alert (“I’m not 
ready for an") Endless Summer, 
and the solidarity-in-world- 
gloom closer If You're Not 
Dark, wherein Sharon Van 
Etten sings back-up. Happily, 
it's the band's sheer joy in crea- 
tion that stays with you, front- 
man Mac McCaughan's win- 
ning, slightly cartoonish vocal 
timbre earning an extra gold 
star for Set It Aside, and Andy 
Stack of Wye Oak's rippling 

sax solo on the title track a 
delightful ambush. For all Wild 
Loneliness's concerns about 
our ailing world, it's unmistak- 
ably a tonic. It's also a life- 
affirming thank-you note for 
what we have left. 

James McNair 





MOJO 87 


There's not a second here 


ridiculous joyfulness of it 
all, and if the band ever line up gigs 
in your neck of the woods, you 
won't be satisfied until you've seen 
them at least three times. Ladies 
and gentlemen, this is what it’s 

all about. 





Crossing the Ocean 





Briony Greenhill 
ЖЖЖ 
Crossing The Ocean 


BRIONYGREENHILL. CD/DL 


Soul jazz from British 
teacher of “collaborative 
vocal improvisation”. 


Greenhill’s jazzy, languid lyrics 
groove on the healing beauty 
of song, the planet and your 
own heart and soul, like Marvin 
Gaye crossed with a funky 
Earth mother. There’s no place 
for cynicism here. UK-born 
Greenhill worked in corporate 
sustainability until her side 
hustle got noticed and she 
quit, first to study technique 
with US vocalist Bobby McFer- 
rin then teach improv singing. 
Opener Die Every Day has a 
lo-fi intimacy, just double bass, 
piano and Greenhill crooning 
before she lifts into fluid free- 
wheel - “Die every day like the 
rose... fall every day, like rain." 
If it's drowsily Kate Bush, Prayer 
For Peace meanwhile could be 
a Joni Mitchell track and Morn- 
ing Bird a gorgeous stream of 
happy scatting. There's occa- 
sional Sondheim-style indul- 
gence, but this is sensual music 
that, if you want them, might 
give extra reasons to live. 

Glyn Brown 


Eddie Vedder 





FILTER ALBUMS 


James Taylor 
Quartet 
ЖЖЖЖ 


Baker's Walk 
AUDIO NETWORK. DL/LP 


Kent keyboardist's first 
all-Hammond organ 
album in 20 years. 


Recorded live in six days at 
Abbey Road studio with just his 
Hammond quartet and guest 
saxist Martin Williams, Baker's 
Walk is a return to 1988's Wait A 
Minute days, when paying 
tribute to his Hammond heroes 
- Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, 
Jack McDuff - JT packed the 
university circuit with the 
Theme From Starsky And Hutch 
and Lulu. On Baker's Walk, his 
touchstones also take in library 
music composers Alan Hawk- 
shaw and Keith Mansfield plus 
The Booker T Set-era M.G.’s, with 
these 10 Taylor originals a 
sound gallery of percussive 
funk and instro-R&B. In the 
former camp, More Hustle Less 
Bustle and Who Put That There, 
both sinuous organ trails weav- 
ing through in-the-pocket bass 
and drums. In the latter, Paris 
Blue and Sun's In My Eyes, rich 
in melody, atmosphere and 
mellow groove. 


Lois Wilson 





= 


METRONOMY { 


SMALL WORLD 


Жый, 
= 





Metronomy 


Kk 
Small World 


BECAUSE MUSIC. CD/DL/LP 


Seventh LP from the 
mainstays of UK synth-pop. 


Cribbing enough ironic 
distance from, but also hugely 
drawn to the 80s, Metronomy 
have become one of the linch- 
pins of British pop. Their sound 
— windswept synths undercut 
by a sense of seaside provincial- 
ism — was set in stone with 
2011's The English Riviera LP and 
continues on Small World. “It 
was fun what | did/Got a job, 
had some kids/See you in the 
abyss”, Joe Mount sings on Life 
And Death, while the chorus of 
Love Factory (“her love is like 
a factory and every day she 
makes me work”) throws a 
grenade into monogamous 
ideals, against a gossamer 
backing. Doomed nostalgia 
melts into optimism on the 
Destroyer-esque Things Will Be 
Fine and Loneliness On The 
Run. But Small World suffers 
from sonic conservatism: the 
Tame Impala-lite of | Lost My 
Mind is undercooked, while It’s 
Good To Be Back’s treacly 
synths are a touch self-parodic. 
Priya Elan 


Tears For Fears 


ЖЖЖЖ 
The Tipping Point 
CONCORD. CD/DL/LP 


First album in 18 years 
from the mega-selling duo 
from Bath. 


Frustrated by a management 
who thought a new album was 
a bad idea (as detailed on the 
acerbic Master Plan) and 
grieving since the death of 
Roland Orzabal’s wife in 2017 
and his subsequent break- 
down, a seventh Tears For 
Fears aloum seemed unlikely. 
Yet Orzabal has re-married and 
they go again. As is their way, 
the making of The Tipping Point 
has been less harmonious than 
the multi-layered vocals of the 
six-minute epic Rivers Of 
Mercy, but from the despair of 
the moving title track, which 
finds Orzabal watching his 
wife die in hospital, to the 
more upbeat Please Be Happy 
and Stay - the story of the 
duo's squabbles - they've 

got this one right. The more 
chances Tears For Fears take, 
the more they thrive, and they 
take chances here: seems like a 
new album was a good idea 
after all. 


John Aizlewood 





ЖЖЖЖ 
Earthling 


SEATTLE SURF/REPUBLIC. CD/DL/LP 
After Into The Wild and Ukulele Songs, 
Vedder’s first solo LP since 2011. 

PRIME NAVIGATOR of Pearl Jam, it’s not 
clear why Eddie Vedder needs a further 


outlet. Skewing towards the earnest, 


















melodic rock his day-job has made a virtue 
of for three decades, Earthling scarcely 
answers this question, but is satisfying 
nonetheless. The first side peaks with 
Brother The Cloud, serving as both a 
powerful memorial for his friend Chris 
Cornell, and a chronicle of Vedder’s 
enduring grief. The second half is more 
playful, a trio of punk-rockers reminding 
us Vedder spent his teens worshipping Bad 
Religion (with Stevie Wonder on thrash- 
punk harmonica on Try). A hokey duet 
with Elton John (Picture), meanwhile, is 
balanced by the charmingly Beatles-esque 
Mrs Mills. Throughout, Earthling toys 
with classic radio-rock clichés, only to 
cleanse them of jadedness via Vedder’s 
trademark wholehearted investment, 
a trick which still charms. 


Steady Eddie: 
Vedder still has the 


ability to charm. 


Stevie Chick 


88 MOJO 





Soul Revivers 


ЖЖЖЖ 
On The Grove 


ACID JAZZ. CD/DL/LP 


Tasteful jazz-influenced 
roots reggae project. 


After collabo- 
rating on the 
soundtrack of 
Idris Elba's 
Yardie, former 

~ — Ballistic Brother 
David Hill and producer/dub 
remixer Nick Manasseh 
conceived the Soul Revivers 
project, laying tight, buoyant 
rhythms beneath the Westway 
with Ruff Cut drummer Adrian 
McKenzie, expressive guitarist 
Ciyo Brown, Galliano's percus- 
sionist Spry Robinson, and 
former Aswad trombonist 
Henry 'Buttons' Tenyue. The 
presence of Jamaican greats 
raises things to another level, 
with Ernest Ranglin's inimitable 
lines giving No More Drama 
irresistible hooks, Ken Boothe's 
Tell Me Why a call for unity that 
references pandemic tribula- 
tions, Devon Russell's reading 
of Curtis Mayfield's Under- 
ground here reconstructed the 
roots way, and Earl 16's Where 
The River crowning him one 
of reggae's most consistent 
voices. Add the vibrant trumpet 
melodies of Kokoroko's 
Ms Maurice and the soulful 
Alexia Coley and you have one 
unique LP, celebrating and 
furthering west London's long- 
standing reggae connections. 
David Katz 


ШШШШШШШШШ 
The Mysterines 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Reeling 


FICTION. CD/DL/LP 

Intense Liverpool rockers’ 
keenly anticipated debut. 
The Mysterines' raw, gothic 
debut crawls under the 
listener's skin, largely thanks to 
singer Lia Metcalfe's impressive 
vocal range across sultry 
grunge, dark, bluesy laments 
and visceral anthems. In desert 
rock murder ballad The Bad 
Thing, Metcalfe tells the story 
of digging up the body of her 
ex-lover; a tale of anguish 
mixed with the blues, it's remi- 
niscent of P.J. Harvey's early 
work. Nods to Harvey can be 
detected throughout these 12 
tracks, particularly in the open- 
ing chords of Dangerous and 
Life's A Bitch. The fuzzy penul- 
timate song All These Things 
lightens the tone, before the 
brooding conclusion of Still 
Call You Home, performed solo 
by Metcalfe self-accompanying 
on guitar. A striking introduc- 
tion to a band who take dis- 
comfort, tie itin a bow, then 
stamp on it with their boots. 
Celina Lloyd 





Danny Clinch 


Tegen Williams 


Babeheaven 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Sink Into Me 


BELIEVE. CD/DL/LP 


Troubled eroticism and 
affecting melancholy from 
the shoegaze Sade. 


The surface of 
Babeheaven's 
soulful dream- 
pop might be 
all soft con- 
tours and 
smooth edges, but these still 
waters run deep, a pervasive 
sense of anxiety disturbing the 
hypnagogic bliss. Crooning 
from within layers of vaporous 
synthesizer, Nancy Andersen 
sings like a chillwave Sade, her 
understated poise channelling 
a deep blues more histrionic 
vocalists couldn't access. Hers 
is a voice adept at communi- 
cating all-consuming longing 
– check her plea of "Let me 
engulf you" amid the smother- 
ing eroticism of the title track, 
or Erase's tale of addictive love. 
Elsewhere, she's scanning the 
horizons for distant storm 
clouds, as on the sublime 
Don't Wake Me, her escapist 
dreams underpinned by 
delirious, unexpected chord 
changes and spare guitar 
solos. The carnal shoegaze- 
funk of Make Me Wanna, 
meanwhile, pairs Andersen 
with rapper Navy Blue, and 
the results are thrilling - she 
should do it more often. 

Stevie Chick 





ШИШИ 
caroline 


ЖЖЖ 


caroline 
ROUGH TRADE. CD/DL/LP 


New London-based 
collective make expansive 
debut album. 


Depicting this 
exploratory 
Octet's medita- 
Е tive perfor- 
mance of a 

= slow-evolving, 
dynamics-rich epic reminis- 
cent of late-period Talk Talk, 
the beautifully shot art house 
video for caroline’s debut 
single Dark Blue situated them 
at the deep end of a disused 
swimming pool. With its Appa- 
lachian folk, electronica and 
minimalist classical influences, 





=. 


Babeheaven: 
soulfuldream- | 
pop with 
added anxiety. 





the rest of their eponymous 
debut is similarly daring. 
Experimental miking tech- 
niques, spare strings and cho- 
ral singing feed into almost 
devotional-sounding, mostly 
instrumental pieces which flag 
the band’s improvisational 
roots. Quiet marvels such as 
IWR, beginning with languid 
Spanish guitar then suddenly 
party to an astonishing sonic 
reveal, are highly impactful, 
while found sounds are woven 
in dramatically (Hurtle). 
Though the percussive, struck 
guitar strings interlude Zilch 
is perhaps an inquiry too far, 
caroline’s flare for conjuring 
the liminal space between 
sleep and wakefulness 
frequently enchants. 

James McNair 


[ 
| 
|] 


Cypress Hill 
ЖЖЖ 


Back In Black 
MNRK!. CD/DL/LP 


DJ Muggs goes AWOL again, 
but Black Milk brings the 
darkly funky noise. 


A more modest 
proposition 
than 2018's 
psychedelic 
hip-hop epic 
Elephants On 
Acid - which saw returning DJ/ 
producer Muggs corral the 
group from the rock-rap 
wastelands into which they'd 
latterly blundered - Cypress 
Hill's tenth finds Muggs again 
absent, ceding the desk to 
Detroit producer Black Milk. 
The resulting sinewy, minimal 
funk delivers their most purely 
hip-hop release since break- 
through Black Sunday, with 
veteran MCs Sen Dog and 
B-Real on pugilistic form 
throughout. The dominant 
lyrical theme remains their 
beloved herb, though good 
vibes are in short supply: 
virtual legalisation in most of 
the US hasn't led to a cessation 
in the ‘war on drugs’, and the 
limber, dubby likes of Open 

Ya Mind and Bye Bye train 
paranoid eyes upon the Feds 
behind the door. Bare-knuck- 
led rhymes and eerie sing- 
song hooks deliver the trade- 
mark thrills, though Muggs' 
lysergic touch is often missed. 
Stevie Chick 








Mattiel 
ЖЖЖ 
Georgia Gothic 


HEAVENLY. CD/DL/LP 


Alternative-pop duo from 
Atlanta impress with their 
chameleonic shapeshifting. 


Mattiel’s subtly subversive 
third LP impresses with 
the craft of their songwriting 
and their eclectic, chameleon- 
like skipping between styles. 
There’s some fine wit at play 
here - opener Jeff Goldblum 
re-imagines The Strokes as 
‘60s girl-group crooning 
а wry paean to a man 
resembling the offbeat 
Hollywood star. And singer 
Mattiel Brown is an adept 
shapeshifter, affecting a 
weathered croon on the 
twang-driven On The Run, 
channelling the metropolitan 
funk of Luscious Jackson on 
Subterranean Shut-In Blues 
and seesawing at will between 
the overdriven swagger of 
early Karen O and the 
vulnerable ennui of late-era 
Karen O. You might struggle to 
identify where their influences 
end and begin, but Mattiel’s 
charisma - and solid gold 
tunes, in the form of 
Lighthouse and the darkly 
gothic Blood In The Yolk - 
ultimately win out. 

Stevie Chick 


Robert Glasper 


KKK 
Black Radio Ш 


LOMA VISTA RECORDINGS. CD/DL/LP 


Third instalment of Houston 
jazz pianist’s meld of jazz, 
hip-hop and soul. 


Robert Glasp- 
er's industry 
pull has 
J expanded 
yy =a exponentially 
алш in the decade 
since Black Radio elevated 
him from the jazz shadows - 
reflected by a cast list that 
includes Gregory Porter, 
Common and Ty Dolla Sign. 
Far removed from the wild 
fireworks of his jazz sets, this 
song-based vehicle for more 
melodic chords and flowing 
keys boasts duets between 
Esperanza Spalding and Q-Tip 
(Why We Speak), Musiq Soul- 
child and Posdnuos (Everybody 
Love) and a deep-voiced rap 
from Meshell Ndegeocello that 
perfectly marries with H.E.R.'s 
downcast balladeering (Better 
Than | Imagined). Much of the 
rest, however, is little more 
than showy, slick and generic 
R&B, with Glasper becoming 
virtually untraceable. 
Andy Cowan 


BLACK 


RADIOII 
ЕІ. АС 











Binker & Moses 


Xo x 
Feeding [he Machine 


GEARBOX. CD/DL/LP 


The first studio LP in five years 
from London jazz scene's breakout 


stars traces new ground. 





| HI | 
FEEDING THE MACHINE 


Freewheeling tenor sax and drum duo Binker Golding and Moses 
Boyd had nothing written when they entered the studio with 
Max Luthert (a fellow veteran of Zara McFarlane's touring band). 
Luthert's modular synths and tape loops, often manipulated in 
real time, add an extra textural dimension to the wistful 
meanderings and brooding menace of Feed Infinite and 
Asynchronous Intervals, as piercing long notes give way to a 
gathering storm of polyrhythmic perversions. While previous 
outings majored on Golding's way with a hook, his melodies are 
less linear here, as parping Sony Rollins-like basslines, John 
Coltrane-ish mid-range riffs and high-pitched Evan Parker-esque 
chorales (breathtaking on Because Because) flutter above Boyd's 
lightning-fleet beat science. Packed with urgency, edge and 
scope, it's light years ahead of the competition. 





ALSO RELEASED 


Cécile McLorin 
Salvant 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Ghost Song 
NONESUCH. CD/DL/LP 


Salvant claims to 
be embracing her 
weirdness on this 
emotionally 

d". turbulent sixth 
studio outing. The classically 
trained singer marries technical 
precision with oddball charisma, 
ragged juxtapositions and 

an exquisite tonal range, 
exemplified by the spooked title 
track's two-way with Brooklyn 
Youth Chorus and an almost a 
cappella reading of Kate Bush's 
Wuthering Heights. The resulting 
ruminations on loss prove both 
playful and deep. 


Joel Ross 


ЖЖЖЖ 
The Parable Of The Poet 
BLUE NOTE. CD/DL/LP 


Since he surfaced 
on Makaya 
McCraven's 
Universal Beings, 

| this NYC vibraphone 
maestro's compositional skills 
have belied his tender years. The 
moving motif of Prayer is a case 
in point, Ross's bright solo bursts 
augmented by his bandmates' 
surging melodic lines. Standout 
turns from saxophonist 
Immanuel Wilkins (Wail) and 
flautist Gabrielle Garo (Guilt) 
enhance material teaming with 
maturity and warmth. 


Avishai Cohen 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Naked Truth 
ECM. CD/DL/LP 


The Israeli 
trumpeter's fifth 
Ф. ECM LP is a slow 

— 2 dance call-and- 
i-i response with his 
bandmates. Predicated on an 
eight-note motif (heard at the 
start of Part Il) and recorded 
after just one rehearsal, clever 
melodic turns hold sway as 
Cohen's winding refrains slip in 
and out of Yonathan Avishai's 
haunted piano figures and Ziv 
Ravitz's unexpected rhythms. 
Zelda Schneurson Mishkovsky's 
poem Departure supplies a 
moving finale. 





Tapani Rinne & 
Juha Máki-Patola 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Ореп 
HUSH HUSH. CD/DL/MC 

Finland's icy climate 
J is harmoniously 
evoked across a 
spare blend of 
overlapping synths 
and woodwind. Tapani's breathy 
saxophone melodies on Brevity, 
lavish clarinet chords on Fall and 
painterly abstractions on Still 
find the RinneRadio mainstay (a 
veteran of Edward Vesala's ECM 
standard Lumi), responding with 
empathy to Máki-Patola's slow- 
release refrains and warm bell- 
like drones. Contemplative jazz 
minimalism comes no better. AC 








MOJO 89 














FILTER ALBUMS EXTRA 





Federico 
Albanese 


Before And Now 


Seems Infinite 
MERCURY KX. CD/DL/LP 


Inspired by Proust’s titular 
epithet, the Italian modern 
classical maverick weaves 
elegant piano motifs with 
electronic arpeggios, 
brooding atmospherics 
and gliding strings. AC 





Magic 


MASS APPEAL. DL 


Not one to chase fads, Nas’s 
fifteenth is a heap of comfort 
food for old-school rap fans: 
“Special like my listeners who 
have attachments to my old 
style,” as he says. DJ Premier 
scratching up a storm on Wave 
Gods further asserts the retro 
New York vibe. JM 


Patti Smith 
on Substack 


Few artists are as suited to Substack as 
creative multi-tasker Patti Smith, who recently 
performed a live set at NY’s Electric Lady 
Studio exclusively for her subscribers on the 
digital newsletter platform. Since March 2021, 
Smith’s readers have received weekl 
instalments of her latest journal, The Melting. 
As the pandemic played out, her writings on 
“the sting of global claustrophobia” gave way 
to something more digressive, picking up 
strands from her 2015 memoir, M Train. Her 
profoundly lyrical prose ranges across travel, 
science, books, art, music, and good coffee. 
The third part is shaping up like a detective 
story (inspired — let's hope — by her love of a 
good ITV3 mystery drama). There's audio too, 
as Patti reads each episode aloud. Without the 
lightning rod of a live audience, the sonorous 
on-stage poet becomes a fond, friendly 
narrator. Smith revels in the intimate 

possibilities of the medium, promising that, 
"As you are reading, I will still be writing, 
until we collide in real time." Meanwhile, 





burgeoning video experiments have seen 
her puzzling over the camera's mirror 
image before reading aloud with bes 
Cairo, her Abyssinian cat, sat patiently E 


on her lap. See them both at 
pattismith.substack.com 


90 MOJO 





Ceramic Animal 


Sweet Unknown 
EASY EYE SOUND. CD/DL/LP 


The Pennsylvanian rock 
classicists snagged Dan 
Auerbach to produce their 
fourth LP. While the '70s blues 
pop of Tangled and Valerie is 
above par, they excel in darker 
moments - the pleading soul of 
Long Day or Big O-inspired title 
track's spare tremolo ache. AC 


Noon Garden 





Beulah 5pa 

LIQUID LABEL. CD/DL/LP 
Flamingods' multi- 
instrumentalist Charles Prest 
proves he's no slouch on Noon 
Garden's entirely self-played 
debut. A blast of heightened 
pop sensibilities and wide- 
brimmed exotica, as heavy 
organs and sunshine grooves 
collide with radiant hooks. AC 


Harmar with 
HL! 


= à ba au VET. P 
Д mE "T Il: te Ir Ї гр 





Matthew Halsall 


Salute To The Sun — 
Live At Hallé St. Peter's 


GONDWANA. DL/LP 


The Manchester trumpeter’s 
take on spiritual jazz can be 
polite, but this concert version 
of his 2020 album is gorgeous: 
lush more than fiery, adjacent 
- with a different set-up - 

to the astral mellowness of 


Lonnie Liston Smith. JM 


Duncan Marquiss 


Wires Turned 


Sideways In Times 
BASIN ROCK. CD/DL/LP 


Solo instrumentals from the 
Phantom Band guitarist share 
some of the solo Michael 
Rother’s moon-lit ambient 
harmonics. Acoustic and 
treated guitar clatter and 
sparkle over seven folk- 
pastoral/motorik tracks. JB 





Jon Opstad 


Extensions 
TIP TOP RECORDINGS. CD/DL 


Subtitled: ‘Music for Computer- 
Controlled Prepared Piano’ and 
made entirely with a Yamaha 
U3 Disklavier. Opstad pushes 
his brief to the max (delays, 
pitch-shifting, extended 
techniques) to conjure flowing 
techno modulations with 
indelible melodies. AC 


PLAY 


Talking aloud: Patti 
Smith gets profoundly 


il 
. 


lyrical on Substack. 


Eliane Radigue & 
Frédéric Blondy 


Occam XXV 


ORGAN REFRAMED. CD/DL 


Minimalism and drone 
transcendentalist Radigue 
composes, at 90, her first piece 
for organ: 44 minutes of 
incremental gravitas played by 
Blondy in London’s Union 
Chapel. Sunn 0))) worshippers 
will approve. JM 





























Tyler Mitchell 


Dancing Shadows 
MAHAKALA MUSIC. CD/DL 


New York jazz bassist 

recruits Arkestra major-domo 
sax player Marshall Allen, 97, 
for a spirited celebration of 
his old boss, Sun Ra, that 
emphasises Ra’s music as 
joyous and accessible - akin 
to Duke Ellington, even - 
rather than obtuse. JM 


E 


ж. 


WHIRLYBIRD | 





X -— — Е: a 


Ty Segall | 
Whirlybird 


DRAG CITY. CD/DL/LP 

Tough to stereotype Segall 
as a garage rocker these 
days, when his range 
extends to projects like this: 
a synth-heavy chamber pop 
score - a bit '80s Tangerine 
Dream - for a documentary 
about Los Angeles helicopter 
reporters. JM 








The Smudges 
Song And Call 


CRYPTOGRAMOPHONE. CD/DL 


Chamber jazz/new classical 
lines are imperceptibly blurred 
as cellist Maggie Parkins and 
violinist Jeff Gauthier unite. 

Be it a John Cage tribute (Music 
Of Chants) or accidental 
Clangers pastiche (the title 
track's slowed-down birdsong), 
their avant-gardisms are offset 
by a light lyrical touch. AC 


SOMEONE /ANTONE?T 





ML LL ALB EE eee Sal e أ‎ 


Various 


Someone/Anyone! 
BANDCAMP. CD/DL 


This 50th-anniversary tribute 
sees Marshall Crenshaw, Stan 
Lynch, sundry Brian Wilson 
band members and others 
reworking Todd Rundgren’s 
1972 LP track by track. Results 
are variable, but Louise 
Goffin’s reboot of | Saw The 
Light shines brightest. MB 


Getty 


Edge Street Live in association with Moneypenny present 


— dae 
wae PETERS 


with Special Guest 
Kim Richey’ 


*March and April dates only 


March GLASGOW Central Hall | 
March GATESHEAD Sage THE 


March LINCOLN Engine Shed | 
) March LYTHAM ST ANNES Lowther Pavilion 
March LEEDS City Varieties | | 
March LONDON Kings Place 

il EXETER Corn Exchange - 





? April. | 
3 April BEXHILL De La Warr Pavilion = I RA e Км со а С" 
April SWINDON Wyvern Theatre F i L M O D C A S T 
April LIVERPOOL Philharmonic Hall 
April LONDON Kings Place ‘SOLD OUT n ] 
April BURY ST EDMUNDS The Apex EPISODE 500 
April CARDIFF St.David's Hall IS HERE! 
April STAMFORD Corn Exchange 
April MILTON KEYNES The Stables 
April BIRMINGHAM Town Hall 
| April BUXTON Opera House 
April EDINBURGH Queens Hall 
Aug BRISTOL St.Georges 
Aug WIMBORNE Tivoli 


NEW ALBUM The 2 Night Үоп Wrote That Song: OUT NOW 


of Mickey Newb 
W @gretc и peters gretchenpeters.com 





MOJO : PUNK ICONS PART ONE MOJO PUNK ICONS 


MW п 








PUNK ICONS. 


Buy online at greatmagazines.co.uk/mojo-specials 


FILTER REISSUES 





Son House 


A Fiouse 
through time 








A previously unreleased performance trom 1964: the show of a lifetime and significant 
historical document of the Delta blues revival. By David Fricke. 


SON HUSE 


ЖЖЖЖ 


Forever On Му Mind 


EASY EYE SOUND. CD/DL/LP 


N JUNE 1964, Eddie James House Jr. was 62 
years old and retired from his day job as a railroad 
porter and cook, now passing the time with his 
wife Evie, television and alcohol in Rochester, New 
York. He was also a rara avis, hiding in plain sight: as 
Son House (per the Jr.), a living witness and party to 
the birth of Delta blues — a primal force of knife-cut 
guitar, African-American story and human cry — in 
his native Mississippi in the 1920s. When three 
young, white, blues fans drove up to his apartment 
building that summer, keen to bring him back to 
light, House was decades away from his few, 
profound recordings: a handful of 78s for the iconic 
Paramount label in 1930; two sessions for folklorist 
Alan Lomax in 1941 and '42, mostly unreleased at 
the time. He hadn’t touched a guitar in years. 


Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images 


92 MOJO 


Five months later, after a remedial shake-up in 
memory and his fireball-slide technique on those Paramounts (see 
Back Story), House was on the road, managed by Dick Waterman 


BACK STORY: 
FUTURE BLUES 
@ “| want to give an 
incredible amount of 
credit to Al Wilson 
(above),” says Dick 
Waterman, who brought 
Son House to Cambridge, 
Massachusetts in July 
1964 for a refresher 
course in his own 
pre-war sorcery. Wilson 
— only 23 and three 
years from co-founding 
Canned Heat – was a 
blues guitarist and 
scholar so immersed in 
House’s canon that he 
knew even the nuances 
by heart. “They sat knee 
to knee,” Waterman 
recalls, as Wilson 
demonstrated a song 
like My Black Mama – 
first as House cut it for 
Paramount in 1930, then 
as he did it for Lomax іп 
1942. "Son would watch 
him, play along and go, 
‘I'm getting my 
recollection!” 





— one of that trio of pilgrims — and at a 
second peak of his powers in this previously 
unreleased performance of a lifetime, taped 
at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, 
Indiana on November 23, 1964. Caught 
with a searing intimacy and clarity that are 
astonishing for this vintage and setting, 
Forever On My Mind opens in skidding bursts 
of slide on a metal-resonator guitar, like a 
rain of bent nails, that cohere into a stately 
rhythm of sharply etched chords as House’s 
voice rises like a column of smoke in a clear 
sky. “I'm goin’ away,” he sings, holding on 
to the last word with extra regret, “but 
you’ll be forever on my mind.” It’s as if 
House is addressing not a woman but music 
itself, a mistress left behind when he quit 
Dixie but who came right back when he 
needed her most. As Waterman (also 
instrumental in the latter-day careers of 
Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt) 

says today, “This is as close as people can 
get to raw Delta blues as it was played in 
the '20s and 30s.” 

By the spring of 1965, House was signed 
to Columbia and recording Father Of Folk 
Blues, a studio comeback with long reach. 
The White Stripes covered its opening 
track, Death Letter, on 2000 De Stijl, and 
Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach, who is 
releasing Forever On My Mind on his Easy Eye 
Sound label, grew up on his father's copy of 
the Columbia LP. *The younger Son House 
is different — faster tempos," Auerbach 


"Son House 
was a primal 
force of knife- 
cut guitar, 
African- 
American story 
and human cry." 





notes. But the older man on the 1965 album and 
to even more immediate, vivid degree on these live 
takes, *reached a point in his life when he didn't 
need to be so fast. He took his time to make his 
points, and it felt like it cut deeper." 

House was practically born at the crossroads 
— outside Clarksdale in 1902 — and ran with the 
neighbourhood legends. Paramount star Charley 
Patton was a mentor, taking House along on a trip 
to the label's Wisconsin studio that produced the 
latter's entire 1930 corpus for the company: six 
titles, three of them spread over both sides of a 78. 
One tune, Walkin’ Blues, which only survived as a 
test pressing, was adapted wholesale by the young 
Robert Johnson — more pest than protégé in 
House's estimation — and another local fan, 
Muddy Waters. And in his best performances 
after rediscovery, House kept going back there, 
Waterman says: “То the 1920s and 1930s, to Tunica 
and Clarksdale, this place in his mind. His eyes 
went back in his head, the sweat came off him. It 
was a full commitment to the music each time." 

You hear that emotional travel as House returns 
here to his Paramount and Lomax artefacts. In Pony 
Blues, his keening vocal mirrors the guitar's shattering wails; 
Levee Camp Moan is mined with rippled-spike and rock-slide 
fills. The Way Mother Did, House's twist on the traditional 
Motherless Children, starts in Delta steel: curt, metallic strokes 
of guitar that sound like the instrument is singing to him and 
impatient for reply. It's the call-and-response of a Mississippi 
Sunday morn except the guitar is the preacher and House, 
once he steps up, is the hallelujah. He was, in fact, a minister 
for a time, before turning to the devil's work — and still drawing 
on the experience for a punch line 40 years later. Listen closely 
for the crowd's response when House hits the end of the first 
verse in Preachin' Blues: *You know I wanna be a Baptist preacher/ 
So I won't have to work." 

But work is all House had after 1943, until Waterman, 
Nick Perls, the future founder of Yazoo Records, and Phil Spiro, 
a Boston folk and blues DJ, found the singer in Rochester, literally 
sitting on his front steps, at the end of a roundabout search with 
stops in Memphis and Lake Cormorant, Mississippi (where House 
drove tractors on area plantations). Empire State Express was a 
brand new blues in 1964, combining classic Delta metaphor with 
House’s own years on the railroad (“She’s "bout the rollingest baby 
on the New York Central line"). He also brought the South up 
north in Death Letter, a lament immortalised on Father Of Folk 
Blues. In a 1965 interview with Chicago broadcaster Studs Terkel, 
House explained how news of the passing of a friend or loved one 
came by mail — “Ап envelope with the little black stripe around it." 
At Wabash College, he is still working on the lyrics that define the 
Columbia version. But the shock and sorrow are already there to 
devastating effect in House's anguished falsetto and ghostly shivers 
of slide — a grief so close you'll be afraid to open your own mail. 

House had seven more years in music before ill health and the 
drinking forced a second retirement in 1971. (He died in 1988 
aged 86.) But on this extraordinary album, House was, as he told 
Terkel, “Ап old man but I got young ideas." In 1964, they were 
already calling Johnson, long gone, the king of the Delta blues 


singers. Here was the living royalty. 











“A witness to the birth 


e of Delta blues...”: 
a? Son House, circa 1967, 
TA caught on Forever On 
' My Mind with searing 
2 intimacy and clarity. 
уе 


a | 7 f Y 
SLES SS И Д 
lT FIT 


my 
4 





Pure spirit: jazz pianist Mike 
Longo (second right) keeps it 
Mainstream with (from left) Ernie 
Wilkins, Carmine Rubino, Carlos 
‘Patato’ Valdes and Al Gafa. 


lines. Crewcut, in particular, 
stands out for its singular 
focus and Iggy-style swagger. 
Maybe they were never meant 
for pop radio after all. 

Lucy O’Brien 


Herbie Nichols 


The Prophetic Herbie 
Nichols Vols. | & 2 


BLUE NOTE. 


=~. AHarlem-born 
= pianist/com- 
poser, Nichols 
М is best remem- 
МЭ” bered as the 

*. co-writer of 
the Billie Holiday ballad Lady 
Sings The Blues, but also 
enjoyed a brief spell at Blue 
Note Records between 1955 
and 1956 where he recorded 
three excellent but overlooked 
albums. The best was The 
Prophetic Herbie Nichols, origi- 
nally released as two separate 
10-inch LPs, combined on this 
vinyl reissue. It's not surprising 
Nichols is a forgotten figure as 
his music is an acquired taste. 
His penchant for quirky melo- 
dies and clunky dissonances 
(as displayed on Blue Chop- 
sticks and Cro-Magnon Nights) 











enlightened by the 
spiritual questing of ri 
John Coltrane. One, 
Sarah Vaughan, hadi’ t recorded for 
four years, but as ascendant horns 
crown sublime vocals and 


saxophonist and flautist 
who later worked with 
Lonnie Liston Smith, 
onde К ит high with his 
soul-jazz reworking of Sly And The 
Family Stone's Family Affair, while 


Various 


Mainstream Funk 


WE WANT SOUNDS. 


BETWEEN 1971 AND "75, the 

time frame this label cherry-pick 
covers, Mainstream was providing a 
home for soul, funk and jazz acts 


Various 


Swedish Pop & Beat 
1263-1969 


RIVERSIDE. 


The Nuggets of 
Swedish '60s 
music was 
1984's Search- 
mu ing For Shakes, 
Ш an eye and 
ear-opening primer of a fertile 
scene then little-known 
beyond Scandinavia. A key cut 
was 1965's Words Enough To 
Tell You by Stockholm beat 
masters Mascots. Here, it crops 
up again on this literally titled 
2-CD comp. Some other 
...Shakes bands also reappear 
with different, less edgy 
tracks: Namelosers, The Shak- 
ers, The Shanes, Tages. This is 
not a beat or Mod-centric 
comp though. Schlager rubs 
shoulders with novelties, 
harmony pop and so-so hit 
parade covers (such as Go 
Now, by Gothenburg's Lucas), 
and all four members of ABBA 
feature in their early band or 
solo incarnations. This particu- 
larly Swedish take on the era's 
homegrown pop is best taken 
as a primer on the formative 
context in which the future 
Eurovision winners operated. 
Kieron Tyler 


POPE BE HT 





94 MOJO 





communion is sought with the 
divine, her 1971 reading of Marvin 
Gaye's Inner City Blues (Make Me 
Wanna Holler) brings one of her 
and the label's most transportive 


performances. Dave Hubbard, the 


Various 


19/9: Revolt Into Style: 
/6 Year-Defining Tracks 


CHERRY RED. 


Seemingly 
selected by 
plucking ran- 
dom songs 
and acts out of 
a hat (or, more 
accurately, licensing vagaries), 
Revolt Into Style is a rather 
incoherent attempt to 
document 1979's indie scene. 
There's the genuinely obscure 
(Belfast's Zipps; Bracknell's 
Three Party Split), the chart- 
friendly (Madness, Clash, 
Human League) and revered 
titans (Joy Division, Teardrop 
Explodes, Magazine). Yet, what 
may seem like a glaring weak- 
ness is a great strength. The 
absence of any cohesion to the 
selection of individual tracks 
(Squeeze get the hit version of 
Up The Junction; Dexys a 
demo; lan Dury & The Block- 
heads a minor album track) 
makes for a box of eclectic 
delights and discovery. If Jon- 
nie & The Lubes' | Got Rabies 
might have been better left in 
obscurity, The Passage's Tak- 
ing My Time is a reminder that 
they (and a handful of others) 
deserve reconsideration. 

John Aizlewood 


Complex 


Live For The Minute: 
The Complex 
Anthology 


ESOTERIC/CHERRY RED. 


Steve Coe 
would later 
mastermind 
Monsoon's 
| 1981 sitar-fired 
hit Ever So 
Lonely, but 10 years earlier he 
was the organ-playing co- 
writing force behind Com- 
plex’s self-titled ‘demonstra- 
tion record’ - just 99 copies 
pressed. Looking back, the 
band mis-read the market, and 
their timing was off. By 1971, 
organ-drenched psych pop 
was old hat, and it sat uneasily 
alongside such tracks as ska- 
lite Josie and cabaret oddity 
Mademoiselle Jackie. Second 
album The Way We Feel was 
equally scattershot, adding 
heavier rock and funk. It simi- 
larly failed to snare a label 
deal. Coe’s replacement Mike 
Proctor piloted 1972's unre- 
leased acetate that included 
covers of Theme From Shaft 
and By The Time I Get To Phoe- 
nix; 1973 demos attempted 
a glam/bubblegum makeover, 
again to no commercial 
avail. With this anthology, 





1975's Betcha Can't Guess My Sign 
by Prophecy brings levity with its 
bonkers Johnny Guitar Watson- 
meets-Ohio Players-meets-P-Funk- 
at-prayer sound. 










Lois Wilson 


Complex's fascinating, flawed 
saga finally gets aired. 
Martin Aston 


Goodbye Mr 
Mackenzie 


The Glory Hole 


BLOKSHOK/NEON TETRA. 


= Minus Shirley 
Manson's rich 
! backing vocals, 
and whittled 
down to a trio, 
۶ ad GMM's fourth 
and (so far) final album has a 
raw charge. Lead vocalist/ 
guitarist Martin Metcalfe 
admits that what emerged 
was "a pretty warped kind of 
album", driven by a furious DIY 
punk ethic. Fed up after years 
of trying to fashion radio- 
friendly hits, along with bassist 
Fin Wilson and drummer 
Derek Kelly he hunkered down 
to the essence, creating the 
densely packed drama and 
dark comedy of tracks like 
Overboard, the cry of a drown- 
ing man, and She's Got Eggs, 
a howl against the music 
industry. In places the vocals 
are strained and the lyrics 
simplistic, but this is over- 
driven by the twisting, 
ingenious, lurching guitar 


w , 








invite comparison with 
Thelonious Monk, but over 
the course of 12 unique tracks, 
ably supported by bassist А! 
McKibbon and drummer Art 
Blakey, Nichols proves he's a 
true original. Sadly, he died of 
leukaemia in 1963 but on this 
evidence, his music still needs 
to be heard. 

Charles Waring 


Various 


The Studio Wizardry 
Of Todd Rundgren 


ACE. 


1968’s Open 
8 My Eyes, Nazz's 
me youthful 

i discharge of 
| ebullient Mod 
| pop, begins 
this concise summary of Todd 
Rundgren's work as writer/ 
producer, while 1977's proggy 
Love Is The Answer, by Utopia, 
closes it. Sadly, there's none of 
his solo material, but the 
remaining tracks celebrate his 
innovation at the controls for 
others, spanning the combus- 
tible blues of Janis Joplin's 
One Night Stand, recorded 
with Paul Butterfield in 1970, 
to Denver singer/songwriter 
Jill Sobule's 1990 So Kind, a 
powerful acoustic folk number 
dealing with domestic abuse. 
Also included is the New York 
Dolls’ 1973 punk blueprint Jet 
Boy, Badfinger's 1971 master- 
class in melancholy powerpop 
Baby Blue, and 1974's sumptu- 
ous You're Much Too Soon by 
Hall & Oates. 
Lois Wilson 


Burt Goldblatt/CTS Images 


‘RETURN 
CONCERT 





Cecil Taylor 


ЖЖЖЖ 
The Complete, 


Legendary, Live Return 


Concert 
OBLIVION. DL 


The avant-garde pianist at 
maximum avant. 


Often acclaimed as the most 
adventurous avant-garde jazz 
pianist, Cecil Taylor invented a 
new keyboard vocabulary in 
the 1950s and '60s, combining 
a jazz background and format 
with classical elegance and 
pounding percussiveness. 
After years of abstention from 
group recording, he reunited 
with earlier collaborators, alto 
saxist Jimmy Lyons and per- 
cussionist Andrew Cyrille 
(along with new bassist 
Sirone), in 1973 at New York's 
Town Hall. While Taylor 
released part of this lionised 
concert, this is it in toto for the 
first time. All man-made musi- 
cal barriers are removed, and 
the result is pure improvisa- 
tion. The energy expended by 
Taylor and company creates an 
impassioned density of relent- 
less note clusters and becomes 
a two-hour experience that's 
as much physical as aural. 
Challenging, but ultimately 
liberating: this is what freedom 
sounds like. 

Michael Simmons 


III 
Sam Moss 


ЖЖЖ 
Blues Approved 


SCHOOLKIDS. CD/DL/LP 


Overdue first-ever release 
from North Carolina blues- 
soul luminary. 


eT The bulk of this 
curio is eight 
tracks for an 
unissued 1977 
recording by 

A CO North Caro- 
lina's Sam Moss at Mitch East- 
er's Chapel Hill house. Easter 
drummed, Moss played every- 
thing else, and on a TEAC 
4-track conjured a sound fram- 
ing the blues of Albert Collins 
and Mike Bloomfield within a 
Muscle Shoals soul vibe. His 
guitar shifts between direct 
and liquid, and the songs 
groove. Moss's bread and 
butter was trading vintage 
guitars, and he took his own 
life in 2007. The story is supple- 
mented by tracks from 1989 to 
1993 and a 1967 version of Act 
Naturally. Future dB's mainstay 
Gene Holder was in one of 
Moss's early bands, and that 
outfit's Chris Stamey discov- 
ered the long lost Blues 
Approved. The title was Moss- 
speak for anything he 











endorsed - spot-on choice for 
a loving tribute. 
Kieron Tyler 


IIH 
Franz Ferdinand 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Hits To The Head 


DOMINO. CD/DL/LP/MC 


No-nonsense, frill-free 
explanation of why they've 
sold 10 million albums. 


With drummer 
Paul Thomson 
departing in 
October, Franz 
Ferdinand are 

| down to leader 
Alex рапс bassist Bob 
Hardy and a clutch of new 
arrivals. If they are approach- 
ing their last days, it's been an 
eventful 20 years. Hits To The 
Head captures the journey 
from the upstarts who name- 
checked Terry Wogan to the 
less jagged but more stately 
arena act who delivered 2018's 
Always Ascending. Any drops in 
quality are skated over and the 
final two of 20 tracks are new: 
co-produced by Stuart Price, 
both suggest that even now 
the tank may not necessarily 
be empty: Curious is Franz 
Ferdinand at their most 
incessantly slinky à la LCD 
Soundsystem, while Billy 
Goodbye is a heroic stomper 
worthy of The Sweet. Despite 
omitting anything from FFS, 
their career re-booting alliance 
with Sparks, this is as good as 
introductions get. 

John Aizlewood 


Tim Bowness & 
Giancarlo Erra 


ЖЖЖ 


Memories Of Machines 
KSCOPE. CD/DL/LP 


Singer-songwriter angst 
meets electronic moods. 


Few musicians 
' dishupa 

f soundworld 
quite as sump- 
tuous as that of 
, No-Man's Tim 
Bowness and multi-instrumen- 
talist Giancarlo Erra: a cello 
keens, electronica shimmers, 

a sad trumpet quietly calls, a 
hushed voice sings. And the 
results can be quite beautiful, 
with the mood of twilight 
melancholia gently upped on 
this tenth anniversary remix 
(on the original the artists 
called themselves Memories 
Of Machines). Bowness and 
Erra are abetted by Robert 
Fripp soundscaping and Peter 
Hammill playing guitar; Steven 
Wilson, the other half of No- 
Man, lends a hand. Warm 
Winter is all wistful yearning, 
Change Me Once Again has a 
stirring Floydian climax. But as 
tunes unfold at glacial pace, 
what will divide listeners is 
Bowness's breathlessly dra- 
matic vocal style. Every lyric is 
relayed with heart-on-sleeve 
earnestness, and the mood 
can become stifling. An often 
lovely album best savoured in 
moderate doses. 

John Bungey 


Rogue beauty: Ornette 
Coleman, defiant and 
ready to attack. 





From new radical to reborn 
experimentalist: the pioneering 
Saxophonist on two vinyl 

box sets. By Andrew Male. 


Ornette Coleman 
Box Sets 


CRAFT RECORDINGS/BLUE NOTE. CD/DL/LP 


IN 2015, reviewing Beauty Is A Rare Thing, 
the 6-CD box set of Ornette Coleman’s 
1959-1961 Atlantic recordings, I had 

an epiphany. Part of me wanted chaos, 

to experience all the turmoil and 
confrontation listeners heard when this 
divisive Texas-born 27-year-old arrived 
on the late-'50s US jazz scene. Instead, 
the music sounded euphoric, the call- 
and-response of Coleman’s sax and Don 
Cherry’s cornet raw and bright; snorting, 
laughing and stretching blues phrases, 
tracked and circled by Charlie Haden’s 
minimal bass and Billy Higgins’ forward- 
flashing drums. Then, wham, halfway 
into Disc 4, Haden and Higgins go, 
replaced by Scott LaFaro on bass, Ed 
Blackwell on drums, and suddenly 
something essential has gone. Beauty 

a rare thing indeed. 

Now here’s a chance to hunt down 
that elusive beauty in the music Coleman 
made before and after those Atlantic cuts. 
Genesis Of Genius (Craft Recordings, 
XX) brings together Something 
Else!!!! and Tomorrow Is The Question!, 
Coleman's exclamatory late-'50s 
recordings for Hollywood independent 
Contemporary. As Ashley Kahn explains 
in his linernotes, this was music defined 
by “experimentation... hardship and 
disdain". And Something 
Else!!!!, his debut, is Ornette 
at his wildest, the blurred 





"E 
gres ü 
E d 


ghosts of communal gospel, | e ا‎ 
Western Swing and big m Y 
un E. 
bands twisting through « 
rhythms апа harmonies like Jj As 
ج سسس‎ zm 

| EE 
| poi m 









Horns of a dilemma 


a spinning late-night radio dial. On 
Tomorrow Is The Question!, Coleman 

and Cherry are joined by the more 
‘professional’ rhythm section of drummer 
Shelly Manne and Percy Heath and Red 
Mitchell on bass. Odd but thrilling, 
Coleman sounds youthful and insolent 

in such company. 

Six years on, the six-LP Round Trip: 
Ornette Coleman On Blue Note (Ж ж ж Ж) 
finds the 36-year-old saxophonist 
emerging from a period of self-imposed 
exile, and ready to attack with a new 
unhinged sound. 1965's live two-volume 
At The Golden Circle Stockholm, is a 
masterpiece. Simultaneously thrilling 
and unnerving, Coleman playing pure, 
punching rhythms that speed alongside 
the driving cymbal rides and cries of 
drummer Charles Moffett. An even more 
radical percussive approach is adopted on 
1966's The Empty Foxhole, with Coleman 
enlisting his 10-year-old son Denardo 
on drums. Described by Shelly Manne 
as “unadulterated shit”, Denardo’s 
drumming now sounds deadly serious 
and punk as fuck. The lawlessness 
continues on Jackie McLean’s 1967 LP 
New And Old Gospel. As Thomas Conrad 
points out in his accompanying essay, 
Coleman’s trumpet playing is either 
“defiantly sharp or flat” but both McLean 
and Coleman play with a sanctified fire. 

For his last two Blue Note albums, 
1968’s New York Is Now! and Love Call, 
Coleman hired Jimmy Garrison and 
Elvin Jones from John Coltrane’s 
Classic Quartet. Accompanied by tenor 
saxophonist Dewey Redman, Coleman 
goes in heavy, burrowing deep into the 
blues and gospel of his youth with a 
complex gravitas that 
perplexes and beguiles in 
turn. Now released on Blue 
Note’s deluxe vinyl imprint 
Tone Poet, these records 
aren’t chen but rare beauty 





2 79 | | 
_ always comes at a price. 
rar. | 
. + | — 
ad V, A 
oli 


MOJO 95 


She wants to save 
you: Irma Thomas, 
at seay in the ‘70s. 





Canned sadness 


ETWEEN 1961 and '65, Irma Thomas 
— once dubbed, probably by a press 
agent, the Soul Queen of New Orleans 
— cut superb singles: It’s Too Soon To Know, 
Cry On, It’s Raining, and many others for 
the local Minit label under the auspices of 
Allen Toussaint, who wrote lively 
arrangements in the spirit of contemporary 
girl groups like The Shirelles. When Minit 
was sold to Imperial, Irma was upset enough 
to write a song called Wish Someone Would 
Care. Ironically, it became her first US pop 
hit, and the title song of her debut album. 
The Imperial sides actually kept up the high 
standard, with writers and producers like 
Van McCoy, Jerry Ragovoy and Bobby 
Womack. Time Is On My Side, It’s Starting 
To Get To Me Now, Breakaway, and Anyone 
Who Knows What Love Is (Will 
Understand) — by Jeannie Seely and Randy 
Newman — were all superb and showed 
Irma to be a singer of acuity and variety. 

She may have not been having hits here, 
but British soul fans were paying attention; 
she even had a UK fan club. Norman 
Jopling, reporting for Record Mirror in 
1966, around her first UK visit, summed 
up her appeal. “She isn’t a rasping bluesy 


songstress. She just sings beautiful melodic 





B 


96 MOJO 


АЁ А 


songs in a clear, clean voice with а 
maximum of soul." 

But as soul grew grittier, Irma's lighter 
style was not so sure-fire. By 1970, it looked 
like her career was on the slipway. Then up 
stepped Jerry Wexler at Atlantic, who sent 
her to Jackson, Mississippi to record with 
Wardell Quezergue, producer of Jean 
Knight's Mr Big Stuff. That produced a lone 
45 in 1971, Full Time Woman, an aching 
country-flavoured ballad which, although it 
flopped, Wexler later mentioned in an 
interview as one of his favourite recordings. 





Irma sings it well, but the 
song is underwhelming, 
effectively hookless, relying 
on its solemn atmosphere. 
Next, Atlantic sent her to 
Detroit to record with Joe 
Hinton where she cut a 
further five originals and 
three covers in May 1972. 
These and other unreleased 
tracks were subsequently 
mislaid until soul historian 
David Nathan unearthed 
them in 2004. Now they 
make their vinyl debut on 
Full Time Woman — The Lost 
Cotillion Album (Real Gone 
Music) > | 

I'd love to tell you they 
coalesce into a masterpiece, 
but I can't. The material just 









isn't good enough. A song from the Hinton 
session called Shadow Of The Sun has one 
of the weirdest orchestral intros Гуе ever 
heard — possibly the work of the great Arif 
Mardin who's thought to have arranged the 
strings for these sessions — and one of the 
most *who cares?' hooklines, making it both 
underwritten and overwrought. Bobbie 
Gentry's Fancy — the memoir of a high-class 
hooker — lacks the original's chilling 
nonchalance. Irma attacks it while her 
drummer goes off on his own trip. Together 
they turn in a misfire. Sweet standard Time 
After Time doesn't work recast as a deep- 
soul shouter. On proto-disco tune Adam 
And Eve, Irma sounds uninspired and 
throws away its one good line: *This time 
I'll ignore the snake." 

“The problem with so 
many of those sessions was 
that they simply didn't give 
me time to learn the 
material," Irma told 
Nathan. *Joe [Hinton] told 
Atlantic I didn't have ‘it’ any 
more and they let me go. 

A few years later, I ran into 
Joe in Oakland, where I was 
performing regularly, and I 
told him, *Hey, for someone 
who doesn't have ‘it’ any 
more, I'm doin' all right!" 

Inappropriate, under- 
rehearsed material and 
heavy-handed production 
meant the Soul Queen of 
New Orleans couldn't shine. 
This is the soundtrack to a 
missed opportunity. 


Di 


Wi M AN 


s i ИШИ i 


Getty 





Alan Braufman 


Live In New York City 
February 8, 19/5 


VALLEY OF SEARCH. 


A Brooklyn flautist/saxophon- 
ist who's currently readying a 
new album, Braufman's credits 
range from The Psychedelic 
Furs to Philip Glass, but back 
in 1975 his career began with 
Valley Of Search, his much- 
vaunted debut LP for Bob 
Cummins' iconic India Naviga- 
tion imprint. Judging from its 
recent reissue, Valley Of Search 
continues to resonate with 
loft-jazz aficionados; and 
fittingly, all but one of its nine 
tracks can be heard on this 
recently unearthed live perfor- 
mance, recorded just before 
the album's original release. 
Accompanied by a six-piece 
band including pianist Cooper- 
Moore and the legendary 
bassman William Parker, Brauf- 
man creates a seamless series 
of densely layered musical 
tapestries driven by rivulets of 
percussion. Among the stand- 
outs is the intense but exalted 
Thankfulness with its intricate 
polyphony, and the more 
meditative Tree Of Life. 
Charles Waring 


Lennie Tristano 


Personal Recordings 
1946-1970 


MOSAIC/DOT TIME. 


1 Admired by 

|| Charlie Parker, 
with whom he 
played in the 
"MEI late-1940s, 

E =] Chicago-born 
Tristano (1919-1978) was a 
blind, virtuosic pianist and 
composer who briefly rose to 
fame in the 1950s but then 
quickly faded from view. This 
superbly curated limited 
edition 6-CD box set (only 
available from mosaicrecords. 
com) opens up the pianist's 
archives to reveal a treasure 
trove of 74 mostly unreleased 
performances. While Tristano's 
fluency as a pianist is impres- 
sive - particularly via an eerie 
avant-garde piece called 
Spectrum and the intricately 
woven Tania's Dream - a clutch 
of explorative 1948 group 
recordings with Lee Konitz and 
Warne Marsh show him arriv- 
ing at a revolutionary free jazz 
concept before Ornette 





Sammi Smith 


Looks Like Stormy 
Weather 1969-1975 


ACE. 


Had Sammi Smith sung soul or 
pop, she’d be as celebrated as 
Dusty. Instead she used her deep, 
rich tones to bring to life country 
songs, mostly heartbreak or 
penitent ones written by such 
giants as Kris Kristofferson and 
Merle Haggard. The first named 
provided Smith’s only crossover hit: 
her version of his Help Me Make It 
Through The Night from 1971 is 
intoxicating and fuelled with 
desperate desire. Other 
benchmarks on this compilation, 
which focuses on her Mega label 
years, include the staggeringly sad I 
Miss You Most When You're Right 
Here and He Makes It Hard To Say 
Goodbye, the first delivered in an 
intimate sob, the second maudlin 
lowing. The previously unissued 
Desperados Waiting For A Train 
and Texas 1947, both written by 





Guy Clark, hold real sway too. 
Lois Wilson 


Coleman. An evocative portrait 
of a musician who - as the 
missing link between swing, 
bebop and free jazz - deserves 
wider appreciation. 

Charles Waring 


T" | [ i iga ال‎ 
ina 1 1 


J 


Рр ace 


Loney Hutchins 


Appalachia 
APPALACHIA RECORD CO. 


Always write about what you 
know was the advice of Mark 
Twain, and that’s exactly what 
Loney Hutchins did on his sole 
album, recorded in 1979 but 
unreleased until 1981. Raised 
by illiterate dirt farmers in 
northern Tennessee (his name 
was a misspelling of ‘Lonnie’), 
a chance encounter with June 
Carter Cash led to him signing 
with Johnny’s publishing com- 
pany and a long association 
with country's First Family. 
Opener Timbertree drips with 
observations about old trucks 
and gnarled mountain trees 
that only a native eye could 
recall; the roughneck, round- 
house honky tonk of Son Of A 
No Good Man reeks of spilled 
beer and cracked heads; the 
simple pleasures and down- 
home satisfaction of We Got It 
All has the same ring of truth 


that imbued so many of Cash's 
own songs. Hutchins never 
quite hit the big time, but the 
journey from where he began 
is remarkable. 

Andy Fyfe 


Pink Floyd 


PU.LS.E. 


WARNER MUSIC. 


In 1994, guitarist/bandleader 
David Gilmour took Pink Floyd 
out for what seems likely to 
remain their final tour. The 
ensuing album and film, 
P.U.L.S.E. (recorded at London's 
Earls Court Arena), featured a 
flashing LED light on its origi- 
nal spine. The light returns on 
physical copies of the restored, 
re-edited film, which now 
includes a second disc of 
videos and concert screen 
films. The packaging is peer- 
less, but slightly ahead of the 
music. The show's first half is 
weighted towards Floyd's 
latest The Division Bell album 
and its 1987 predecessor A 
Momentary Lapse Of Reason. 
It's a big, polished, expensive- 
sounding performance; all 
soaring backing vocals and 








Play it again, Sammi: 
Smith brought country 
songs to life. 


— — 


clattering extra percussion. 
High Hopes references peak 
'70s Floyd, but other ‘new’ 
songs now sound alittle hun- 
gover from the 1980s, before a 
welcome soup-to-nuts perfor- 
mance of The Dark Side Of The 
Moon rights any wrongs. 

Mark Blake 





Spirit 


Twelve Dreams Of 
Dr. Sardonicus 
CHERRY RED/ESOTERIC. 

| 
| ex ) TET. 
When the best of '60s rock is 
discussed, LA's Spirit are too 
often neglected - a shame 
since they were among the 
finest of the era, revered by 
Zeppelin and others. Con- 
noisseurs often consider this 
fourth album, from 1970, their 
finest. Predating Steely Dan, 
they were exemplars of smart 
rock: complex, yet catchy 
melodies, soaring harmonies, 
shifting tempos, surreal lyrics, 
driven by jazz drummer Ed 
Cassidy and guitar god Randy 
California. Sardonicus has had a 
presence on classic rock radio 
ever since release, particularly 
Nature's Way, California's pres- 
cient warning of environmen- 
tal catastrophe. California 








began his career as a Hendrix 
bandmate, and while his play- 
ing is singular, he shared with 
Jimi the ability to make his 
guitar wax like vocals. This 
2-CD set adds outtakes and an 
in-concert disc from two 1970 
shows, at the Fillmore West 
and Boston's Tea Party, unre- 
leased material that affirms 
how remarkable Spirit were. 
Michael Simmons 


The Unclaimed 


Primordial Ooze 
Flavored 
MISTY LANE. 


The Unclaimed 
were founded 
in 1979 by Sid 
Griffin and 
Shelley Ganz 
but made 
music like it was 1966. After 
honing their craft live on a set 
of covers of songs by The 
Seeds, Standells et al on bills 
alongside The Bangs, they 
debuted on record in 1980 
with their ace Pebbles/Nuggets- 
patterned self-titled EP on 
Moxie (reissued in 2021 on 
Misty Lane). By 1983's mini- 
album Primordial Ooze Flavored 
for Hysteria, Griffin was play- 
ing in The Long Ryders, but 
little else had changed, the 
eight tracks here thrilling 

with a battle-of-the-bands 
simplicity, driven by compul- 
sive, raw riffing and weedy 
organ with occasional sitar 
drone and Ganz's heretical 
shrieks and yelps. 

Lois Wilson 


MOJO 97 





Karen Dalton 
KKKKK 
In My Own Time 


LIGHT IN THE ATTIC. CD/DL/LP/MC 


Resurrected treasures from 
a singular artist. 


Barely known before her 1993 
death, ‘Sweet Mother K.D.' has 
become a beloved singer to 
many not yet born then. 
Without applying any overt 
effort, she embodied an 
unequalled emotional 
honesty, which may be why 
fans have flocked to her like 
parched tourists lost in the 
desert. It was as if she was 
singing to herself, a quality 
given credence by her utter 
disregard for the music 
business. This is her second, 
final album from 1971, 
produced by bassist Harvey 
Brooks, with songs from 
Motown, Paul Butterfield, 
Richard Manuel, George Jones 
and Percy Sledge that she 
transforms into personal 
statements. Outtakes and live 
tracks, essential for devotees, 
round out various editions. 
Dalton lopes like an alley cat 
on pal Fred Neil's Blues On The 
Ceiling from Montreux '71 
- bewitching, unbothered. 
Michael Simmons 





Lemonheads 
ЖЖЖЖ 

It's A Shame 
About Ray 


FIRE. CD/DL/LP 


A 30th anniversary 
expansion for Evan Dando's 
30-minute saving grace. 


Having missed the newly- 
launched alt-rock adventure 
boat with Lemonheads' 
uneven 1990 Atlantic debut 
Lovey, intuitively gifted, dusty- 
voiced Boston punk scenester 
Evan Dando was given a low- 
expectation second chance to 
square the circle in his pop- 
smart brain between Gram 
Parsons and Hüsker Dü. And 
he nailed it, thanks to 
deploying bassist/vocalist/ 
muse Juliana Hatfield across a 
cache of short but sweet songs 
Dando took back from a 1991 
trip to Australia, plus the skills 
of LA's Cherokee Studios 
producers The Robb Brothers, 
whose Steely Dan/Doobie 


98 MOJO 











FILTER REISSUES 


Brothers connections 
delivered him no less than Jeff 
‘Skunk’ Baxter, playing slide 
guitar on Hannah & Gabi. It’s A 
Shame About Ray still glows 
like embers of an endless 
summer: My Drug Buddy's 
narcotic ache, Confetti's 
bruised marriage wisdom, the 
giddy ecstasy-trip reportage 
Alison's Starting To Happen. 
An inessential extra disc of 
B-sides, rough demos and 
radio sessions only reiterates 
the creative kismet of the 
original's golden half-hour. 
Keith Cameron 


1111111111 
Various 


ЖЖЖ 


Un-Scene! Post Punk 
Birmingham 1978-1982 


EASY ACTION. CD/DL/LP 


Love letter to an overlooked 
scene, etched on an Ansells 
beer mat by ex-Prefects 
drummer Dave Twist. 


UN-SCENE с=т Why is the 


UK’s second 


Vane =й : 

yee erry =F city so under- 
А А 
bero at | represented in 
yw" = rock's VIP area? 


-_----- 5| Brummie 
comic/writer Stewart Lee, ina 
sleevenote to this enlightening 
comp, credits a local mindset 
that considers self-promotion 
“a cardinal sin”. This surely 
makes Robert Lloyd's Prefects 
- represented here by a 
blazing, lo-fi live version of 
their discomfiting The Bristol 
Road Leads To Dachau - and 
Nightingales the ultimate 
Brummie bands; no group has 
courted attention or prized 
admiration less. Interesting 
then, that among similarly 
spiky fare (Swell Maps' cubist 
classic Vertical Slum; The 
Denizens' pungent Ammonia 
Subway) here are the seeds of 
future new romantic slick 
willies Fashion (their We're The 
Fashion demo is presciently 
Roxy/Bowie-lite) and Duran 
Duran (a live recording of 
DADA’s Birmingham UK, 
featuring Duran bassist John 
Taylor on guitar and Dave 
Twist himself on drums, is 
uncompromisingly mecha- 
Fall). All this and early evidence 
of Stephen Duffy's wry tones 
and pop smarts on The Hawks' 
Big Store. 

Danny Eccleston 


COMING 
NEXT MONTH... 


Wet Leg (pictured), Tinariwen, 
Fontaines D.C., The Waterboys, 
Warmduscher, Molly Tuttle, 
Martha Wainwright, Tindersticks, 
Alabaster DePlume, Pavement, 
and more. 





| soul soul reds 1 










Dennis Alcapone 
& Lizzy 
ЖЖЖЖ 
Soul To Soul DJs Choice 


DOCTOR BIRD. CD 


Expanded 1973 LP showcasing 
two of the era’s premier deejays 
on Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label. 
Alcapone's fluid scat-toasting is 
matched by lesser-known Lizzy's 
sing-talk style, the duo blending 
impressively on a version of Alton 
Ellis's immortal Cry Tough. SM 


Nuthin 


rear ar kera of Tima 
TE PUC Aarni Tee ES «FF 





Pawan 


ЖЖЖ 


Dreamworkers Of 
Time: The BBC 
Recordings 1985-1995 


ATOMHENGE/CHERRY RED. CD 


Two 19805 live sets, with hard 
rocking at Reading '86 (Lemmy 
and Dumpy of Rusty Nuts fame 
join for Silver Machine) and 
Space Opera in Hammersmith in 
'88. BBC sessions from '85 and '95 
(crusty synths ahoy) make this an 
archival treat. /H 


Tame Impala 
KKK 
The Slow Rush 


FICTION. DL/LP 


Vinyl box set of Kevin Parker's 
fourth LP on two transparent red 
LPs plus a 7-inch and two 
12-inches of B-sides and remixes. 
Lil Yachty, Maurice Fulton, Blood 
Orange and Four Tet (Is It True in 
resonant, ambient chimes from 
2020) emphasise the original 
album's dancefloor and yacht 
rock-leanings. JB 











The Coral 
ЖЖЖЖ 
The Coral 


RUN ON. CD/DL/LP 


Twenty years (gulp) on, the Wirral 
psychedelic crackpots' foaming 
debut melts down Safe As Milk, 
The La's, pre-Fabs pop sensitivity 
and more insularity-looking-out/ 
snake-charming-on-the-Volga 
goodness. Dreaming Of You is 
still a serious tune; extras include 
two never-heard songs. IH 


r^ гав 


Jeff Parker 
KKKK 
The Relatives 


THRILL JOCKEY. CD/DL/LP 


Fulsome love for Parker’s recent 
Forfolks album makes it a good 
time for the jazz/post-rock/ 
Tortoise guitarist to dust down 
this 2005 set. The playing’s 

as subtle and impressionistic 
as ever, but there’s drive and 
swing, too, on Mannerisms and 
a twinkling stab at Marvin 
Gaye's When Did You Stop 
Loving Me?. JM 





LUX AND ШУ SAY FLIP YOUR ТЇР | 


NEFT AAD PENC e did rrr Tair | 
Various 


Lux And lvy Say Flip 
Your lop 


CHERRY RED. CD 


Going deep on The Cramps' Lux 
and lvy's trash aesthetic as 50 
tracks pinball between '50s/'60s 
rollicking R&B, warped doo wop, 
oddball rockers and teen dance 
crazes. Poor taste novelties like 
Gerry Granahan's Too Big For Her 
Bikini can only be put down to 
being from 'different times'. SM 


















Sussan Deyhim & 
Richard Horowitz 


ЖЖЖЖ 


Desert Equations: 
Azax Attra 


CRAMMED DISCS. CD/DL/LP 


Now with three bonus tracks, US 
composer Horowitz and Iranian 
vocalist Deyhim's dazzling 1986 
blend of ethereal Persian trad 
and avant-garde electronica. Still 
modern-sounding today. SM 





Suicide 
ЖЖЖЖ 


Surrender 


MUTE. CD/DL 


Henry Rollins annotates this 
single disc intro to NY duo whose 
brutalist electronics (Martin Rev) 
and doo wop-informed vocal 
bloodletting (Alan Vega) inspired 
generations of seething 
adolescents over five LPs, 1977- 
2002. Suicide watchers note: an 
unreleased take of Girl; the "first 
version" of Frankie Teardrop. JB 





Various 
ЖЖЖЖ 
Money In My Pocket 


DOCTOR BIRD. CD 


A 2-CD 48-track haul of producer 
Joe Gibbs' 1972-73 singles output 
that speaks to the abundance of 
Jamaican vocal talent in the 
spring of reggae's halcyon era. 
As harmony groups gave way to 
solo singers and then deejays, 
Gibbs served up the cream: The 
Heptones, Dennis Brown, U Roy 
and many more; 33 new to CD. KC 





RATINGS & FORMATS 
Your guide to the month's best musicis now even more definitive with our handy format guide. 
CD COMPACT DISC DL DOWNLOAD ST STREAMING LP VINYL 
MC CASSETTE DVD DIGITAL VIDEO DISC CIN CINEMAS BR BLU-RAY 


KKKKK ook kkk 


MOJO CLASSIC 


EXCELLENT 


ЖЖ 


GOOD 





DISAPPOINTING 


* Ww 


BEST AVOIDED DEPLORABLE 


Story of the London blues: 
John Wesley Holder in 
Report 1553: Racist-A 
Most Dangerous Proposal, 





BURIED TREASURE 


a 1969 episode of ITV crime 
| drama Strange Report; 
| (inset) the singer today. 
Mauge on drums. Тот Parker played “Ray 
Charles-type” piano, while the surname of the 
West Indian sax player named Colin has been 
lost to time. 
In 1969, the same year Holder filmed John 
Boorman's satirical comedy Leo The Last 
alongside Marcello Mastroianni, Black 
London Blues was released. The sleeve 
found the groovy-looking artiste leaning 
on a lamp post on a cold, rainy west 
London street. It's an apt cover shot: the 
LP's loose, funky blues with gnarly guitar 
solos and personalised accounts of 
immigrant frustrations suit the image's 
blocked sink, pre-decimal Britishness to a 
tee. Similarly, this blues-via-the-Caribbean 
in a still-hippy English situation has its own 
flavours, distinct from the authentici- 
ty-minded homegrown scene. Blues tropes 
spin sideways: in Pub Crawling Blues the 
narrator stays up all night drinking pints 
of bitter and bottles of wine at The Star 
and The Bull And Bush. Notting Hill 
Eviction Blues evokes hiding from the rent 
collector, hand-to-mouth living and the 
ever-present threat of being out on the 
street. The sauntering, mocking, on-edge 
title song further identifies how the deck is 
stacked: writing to his mum from Brixton 


















Tracks: Brixton 
Blues/Pub Crawling 
Blues/Too Much 
Blues/Notting Hill 
Eviction Blues/Black 
London Blues/ 
Ladbroke Grove 
Blues/Sleeping 
Alone Tonight Blues/ 
Wimpy Bar Blues/ 
Piccadilly Circus 
Blues/Hampstead To 
Lose The Blues 


Personnel: Ram 
John Holder (vocals, 
guitar), Clive 
Chaman (bass), Stan 
Chaman (guitar), 
Bobby Mauge 
(drums), Tom Parker 
(piano), Colin (sax) 
Producer: Ram 
John Holder 


Released: 1969 


Recorded: 
Denmark Street, 
possibly Southern 


Current 
availability: 



























Capital Charge 


This month's hidden room in rocks The Ram Jam Band in 
mansion of mystery —a migrant London). He was active on 










Lh i the Greenwich Village folk Spotify jail, the protagonist mentally walks Kilburn 

reacts to tne metropolis. circuit, and recalls actor Lou High Road, Petticoat Lane and Portobello 
Gossett Jr. asking him to pass the hat round Road and admits, “I had a shock in store for 

Ram J O h n H © | а ег at the со Rafic for а at singer named me” in “freaky, foggy London town... the 

B | ace lo N d on B | ues Bobby Zimmerman. racist landlord... the prejudice stares you 

BEACON, 1969 “Before and after I went to the States, Im _ right in the face.” After nocturnal stop-offs 
socially conscious, politically active, aware of at a Wimpy Bar and Piccadilly Circus, where 


Milton Samuel, the independent Beacon ^ wag attracted to learning, literature, music and stead To Lose The Blues completes the cycle, 


e STABLISHED BY Antiguan businessman the struggle,” says Ram John Holder today. “I label boss Samuel gets a namecheck, Hamp- 











label began trading above a timber yard liberation struggles, which I was very involved as the narrator heads north from Brixton on 
in Willesden in 1968, down the road from in. In my student activities, I got into trouble the London underground and bus network to 
Trojan Records’ Neasden Lane HQ. Small but with the American government.” a brighter future. 
ambitious, the label's first success came after Consequently, by 1962 he was in London “What the record came out of was 
it licensed The Showstoppers' rough-cut working as an actor and musician. From '66 experiences," says Holder, who'd finessed the 
Philly soul number Ain't Nothing But A he cut pop and R&B sides for Columbia and material playing it live in the clubs. “They’re 
House Party, а Number 11 UK hit in April '68. Parlophone, and worked relentlessly, playing very documentary, the songs. When you had 
Misses followed, however, by acts including folk nights at venues including the Marquee the Rachman thing in the early 60s, eviction 
The Marylebone Ensemble, The Brixton and the Witches Cauldron in Belsize Park. became a scandal. Brixton Blues is a very 
Market and The Funky Bottom Congregation. Опе notable event was an anti- Rhodesia graphic commentary on what actually 
Another release that failed to ignite would benefit billed PSYCHODELPHIA versus Ian happened to me on my first night in London. 
have more long-term success piquing Smith GIANT FREAK OUT”, held at the Same with Pub Crawling Blues — I was a big 
listeners’ interest — Black London Blues by Roundhouse in December '66, where Pink pub crawler!” 
Ram John Holder. Floyd played with the Ram Holder Messen- Holder recorded follow-up Bootleg Blues 
Born in British Guyana in gers. “I was top of the bill and in 1971, widening his vision, he said, “beyond 
1934, the man named John Pink Floyd were my support- black London and out into the wider realm of 
Wesley Holder’s father was a ing group!” he says. “I was Europe” though Hampstead Blues’ admission 
guitar-playing Methodist all over the place then. My “Гуе got to get away from here” suggested 
minister in Georgetown, and God, I don’t know how I got he remained unfulfilled (Graham Coxon has 
he grew up surrounded by the energy.” covered its song Way Up High live). After 
music both spiritual and Though Manfred Mann’s 1975’s You Simply Are, Holder concentrated 
secular. A keen singer thrilled Paul Jones unsuccessfully more on acting, and in 1989 found fame 
by the blues, Ray Charles and recommended Holder to Joe playing Augustus ‘Porkpie’ Grant on Channel 
gospel groups including The Boyd at Elektra, Ram John 4’s pioneering black sitcom Desmond's. After 
Five Blind Boys Of Alabama, found a welcome at Beacon. Desmond's ended in 1994, Porkpie got his 
he moved to the US in 1954, е Recorded in a 4-track studio own series, having won £10 million on the 
initially studying to become a | Was а оп Denmark Street over a few ^ lottery. Appearances in EastEnders, Death 
preacher. In 1958, as Ramjohn bi T b four-hour sessions, Black In Paradise and, on-stage, Ma Rainey’s Black 
Holda & The Potaro Por- 8 е, London Blues found thesinger/ ^ Bottom followed for Holder. He's pleased that 
5 knockers, he recorded Songs C rawl e r! guitarist joined by three Black London Blues is still resonating in 2022. 
2 Of The Guiana Jungle in New RAM JOHN musicians from Trinidad who “I was way ahead of my time,” he says with a 
= York (he says he took the HOLDER he regularly gigged with: future laugh. “You know, I'm no В.В. King, I'm no 
e 'Ram' prefix from a George- Jeff Beck Group member Clive John Lee Hooker, I’m no Muddy Waters... 
£ town fruiterer, not as some Chaman on bass, his brother I am Ram John Holder!" 
^ reports say because he fronted Stan on guitar and Bobby lan Harrison 


MOJO 99 





OE 





Jokers 


The Cosmic Jokers 
KOSMISCHE MUSIK, 


"A fraud and a con, 
but when the music's this 
good who's complaining." 
Gordon Campbell, via e-mail 


According to Manuel 
Gottsching, these live cosmic 
jam sessions were recorded 
with full knowledge of the par- 
ticipants. Klaus Schulze, on the 
other hand, still insisted they 
were recorded and released by 
Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser without the 
permission of the participants. 
Live-mixed by Dieter Dierks, 
the first and best of the releas- 
es features Góttsching and 
Schulze alongside drummer 
Harald Grosskopf and key- 
boardist Jürgen Dollase lost in 
a kind of heavy dub kosmische 
dynamic, a phased, floating 
sound of echo and delay. If you 
like this, check out the same 
year's heavier and harder 
Galactic Supermarket, with 
vocals from Rosi Müller and 
Kaiser's equally spaced-out 
partner Gille Lettmann. 


- 


Space-rock men 3: Ash Ra 
Tempel (from left) Manuel 
Gottsching, Hartmut Enke 
and Klaus Schulze іп 1971. ® 


Ash Ra Tempe 








Poo ane ДГ" 
й 1 Е... 








This month you LA 
chose your Top 10 
Recordings’ Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser. Ash Ra Tempel and 
Kaiser, who worked with his solo LPs. Next 
. | . month we want 
girlfriend Gille Lettmann and your Tortoise Top 10. 
“schlager” music publisher and Send selections via 
Twitter, Facebook, 


Hansa founder Peter Meisel, lie rain ores 
believed in a utopian new to mojo@ 
psychedelic music that would bauermedia.co.uk i7 | 
combine German folk and SEE аа 
mythological traditions with 4 Ash Ra Tempel 


Tortoise' and we'll 
improvisation, psychedelics and print the best Inventions For 
transportive religious communion: е Electric Guitar 
Kosmische Musik. For a brief KOSMISCHE MUSIK, 
period, the Ash Ra members were involved in "Superb. It's that 
numerous Kaiser projects, including the epic repetitive trance music 
the summer of 1970, when the 21-vear-old Schulze hedelic party jams he released as The Cosmic Mund 
| 2 ys XI Poe ee Jere Ode Spiritualized hit on with 

walked into West Berlin’s Beat Studio, having just Jokers, plus the tribal space-funk freakouts of Walter Electric Mainline.” 
been dismissed as Tangerine Dream’s drummer, what ^ Wegmüller's Tarot, and Sergius Golowin’s @JonJCrowley, via Twitter 
stopped him in his stacks was the speakers belonging mountainside dream trip, Lord Krishna Von Goloka. 
to Manuel Góttsching's Berlin-based blues-jazz- And, of course, an acid-fuelled session with US FBI 
improv outfit the Steeple Chase Blues Band: four huge — fugitive and psychedelics guru Timothy Leary, Seven 
WEM speaker cabinets, previously owned by Pink Up. Kaiser's projects arguably deserve a How To Buy 
Floyd. Here was the ‘idea’. “I said, We must form of their own; they certainly obscure the divergent 
a band. I said, Forget blues rock for a new kind of trajectories that Góttsching and Schulze's music took 
| n employing a bank of echo 
space rock’, once the Tempel collapsed and both effects to make his guitar 

Góttsching, born in 1952 in West began experimenting with electronic ^ (“there are no other instru- 

; { | L 

Berlin, was a classically trained music. Here we focus on those еше notes E Dae 

EE. А | p | Mu cover) sound like some giant 
guitarist who'd had his head turned individual paths while highlighting melancholic sequencer. Like 
by free jazz. Schulze rechristened their best work together. Inevitably, Tangerine Dream's Phaedra for 
his band: Ash representing "the recordings have been left out, some guitar, itis second only to 
remains, the final curtain", Ra, the because their historical significance 





Klaus Schulze in 1997, discussing the 

1970 formation of Ash Ra Tempel with 
Manuel Góttsching. “We just did it. No big thing. 
[Back then] people founded groups, joined groups, 
left groups, disbanded groups. Nobody cared.” 


What he doesn't mention is the speakers. For in 


6 6 T HERE WAS no ‘idea’ behind it,” said 








Burned out by his involvement 
with Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser and 
following the breakdown of 
formative Tempel member 
Hartmut Enke, Góttsching 
effectively goes solo. He's 
recording in his kitchen and 











E2-E4 in its futuristic divination 
of techno, with Echo Waves' 
hypnotic ostinatos simultane- 


Egyptian Sun God, and Tempel, 

a place for rest and contemplation. 
Perhaps more significantly, Schulze 
introduced Góttsching to Ohr 


100 MOJO 


outweighs the listening pleasure 
(Seven Up), others because they are 
nigh-on impossible to buy without 
applying for a second mortgage. 


ously inventing trance, the riff 
from Pink Floyd's Run Like Hell, 
and the blueprint for Jason 
Pierce's Spiritualized. 


O MG.ART. www.manuelgoettsching.com 


ыйыы ı1ı o 


Klaus Schulze 


Blackdance 
BRAIN, 1974 





You say: "Julian Cope isn't 
the biggest Klaus Schulze 
fan but this is his choice, so 
that's good enough for me." 
Belishabeacon, via 
mojo4music.com 


A perfect midpoint between 
the unholy darkness of Irrlicht 
and the ambient placidity 

of later releases such as 
Moondawn and Mirage, 
Schulze's third solo LP incorpo- 
rates synthesizers, phased 
trumpet, acoustic guitar and, 
shockingly, another individual: 
opera singer Ernst Walter 
Siemon, who provides glori- 
ously doomed lieder on side 
two's epic subterranean trave- 
logue of phased organ and 
drum machine, Voices Of Syn. 
Like a post-apocalyptic 
Debussy’s La Cathédrale 
Engloutie, Blackdance is a work 
of profound eerie symbolism, 
summoning a cursed Gothic 
soundworld far removed from 
the kosmische utopia envi- 
sioned by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser. 


- a 

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ie, 


Fish “Ra dened 
ا‎ Tiri 





"- 


"ES E ү 


Ash Ra Tempel 
Schwingungen 
OHR, 1972 


You say: “My vote would go 
to Schwingungen (and Join 
Inn, NAOE, E2-E4 and 
Blackouts). All just incredi- 
ble." @Nonemorerecords, 
via Twitter 


Produced by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, 
with Wolfgang Müller on 
drums and Agitation Free's 
demon seer John L wailing on 
vocals, this is Ash Ra travelling 
into a corroded alternate 
future where John Lydon is 
singing with Funhouse-era 
Stooges. With Góttsching's 
demon Bo Diddley riffs, 
Matthias Wehler's evil alto sax 
wails and John 5 hysterical 
repetition of “Flowers must 
die/Die die die die!”, this is a 
bad trip you wish would last 
forever and end immediately. 
Side two’s Suche and Liebe are 
the cure for whatever side one 
was: 19 minutes of deep space 
jungle ascent, Góttsching's 
synth-jacked ripples easing 
you into a minimalist Floydian 
heaven-state. Utter bliss. 


Le“"Rerceda de Cristal 


A BR mpel 


Ash Ra Tempel 
| e Berceau 
De Cristal 


SPALAX, 1993 





You say: "Don't be put off by 
the sleeve - Le Sourire Volé 
is a monster!" @johnjnicol, 
via Twitter 


For the soundtrack to Philippe 
Garrel's 1975 cinéma d'opium, 
in which a heavily sedated 
Nico contemplates the aching 
void of existence while haunt- 
ed by semi-mythical beings 
portrayed by Anita Pallenberg 
and Dominique Sanda, Manuel 
Góttsching was asked to 
compose "music to make you 
dream". Assembled from a live 
1975 performance in Cannes 
with Agitation Free guitarist 
Lutz Ulbrich and a series 

of four-track recordings 

with Farfisa organ, EKO 
Computerhythm and an EMS 
Synthi Hi-Fli guitar effects unit, 
Góttsching conjured a series 
of "electric dreams". Eight mes- 
merising Buddhist meditations 
for late-night travelling, wheth- 
er out on the road or in the 
comfort of your own home. 





Manuel 
Gottsching 
E2-E4 


INTEAM GMBH, 1984 


You say: "Bought it based on 
a glowing review in Sounds. 
Didn't know what to make of 
it at the time but gradually 
it's wormed its way in and 

is now a desert island disc." 
lan Campbell, via Twitter 


One of the most influential 
albums ever made, this techno 
ur-text was recorded by 
Góttsching in one hour in his 
Berlin studio on December 12, 
1981. Utilising a suspended 
two-chord (E2-E4) vamp on his 
Prophet 10, a sequencer con- 
trolling the shifting accents, 
Góttsching gradually adding 
points of percussion, delicate 
melodic figures and guitar, 
E2-E4 is a slowly evolving, hal- 
lucinatory exercise in relaxed 
repetition. With its euphoric 
simplicity blueprinted by 
Inventions For Electric Guitar, at 
its root core this is as much an 
act of spontaneous psychedel- 
ic riffage as the first Ash Ra 
Tempel LP. 


Ashra 
New Age 
Of Earth 


VIRGIN, 1977 





You say: "I have a soft spot 
for this '77 album. Flows like 
a warm embrace from the 
sun. Gloriously affecting." 
@52Vinyl, via Twitter 


Once dismissed as the worst 
kind of cosmic noodling, 
Góttsching's mid- 70s record- 
ings have aged exceptionally 
well, embraced by a new wave 
of fans seeking out sublime 
deep-dream analogue space 
music. A composition for key- 
boards and synthesizers, New 
Age... is minimalist, medita- 
tive, moving from the repeti- 
tive melodic proto-techno of 
Sunrain to the side-long Fripp- 
meets-Floyd closer Nightdust, 
a nocturnal lullaby which also 
works as a benign answer to 
the deep-space nightmare of 
Klaus Schulze's Irrlicht. If you 
like this, seek out Góttsching's 
more guitar-oriented follow- 
up Blackouts (Virgin 1978), 
especially the almost Balearic 
funk groove of Shuttle Cock. 









Ash Ra Tempel 
Ash Ra Tempel 


OHR, 1971 





Ash КА TETPEL ' 


Ta 
bI i mJ 
i LI PARUM) 


6^ Ra Tempel 


Join Inn 
OHR, 1973 


You say: "Jenseits from Join 
Inn is one of my favourite 
things ever and often makes 
me cry a bit." @astralsocial- 
ite, via Twitter 


Due to the emotional and psy- 
chedelic fallout from Seven Up 
(see intro) this would prove 

to be bassist Hartmut Enke's 
final appearance with Ash Ra 
Tempel. Klaus Schulze was 
back in the fold on drums (plus 
organ and synthesizer) and 
Góttsching was now playing 
alongside his partner Rosi 
Müller. Side one's Freak 'N' Roll 
is a 20-minute space jam that 
moves from blues-rock wah- 
wah into a kind of cosmic 
speed metal Sabre Dance 
without ever truly finding its 
feet. However, side two is 
utterly gorgeous, a beatless 
ethereal reworking of Seven 
Up's Timeship in which Rosi 
Müller recounts Ash Ra's 
encounter with Timothy Leary 
as a kind of cleansing act 

of meditation. 


You say. "Obviously... First side of thisis an absolute 
monster." Jon Crowley, via Twitter 


Recorded in Hamburg with Conny Plank, Ash Ra's debut formed 
the structural and ideological blueprint for both the band and 
Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser's "kosmische" philosophy. As with subsequent 
releases there is a single track on each side, each representing 
opposite yet complementary forces. Side one's Amboss (“Anvil”), 
begins with the FX-stoned shimmer of Manuel Góttsching and 
Hartmut Enke's guitars before some heavy growling drones ride 
in, accompanied by Schulze's tribal Detroit drums, forcing 
Gottsching to keep up with spectral Hendrix wails and chunky 
power-blues riffs. Flipside, Traummaschine ("Dream Machine") 

is the spatial, ambient comedown, sounding simultaneously 
soothing, righteous and, when those dark Góttsching riffs return, 


just that little bit terrifying. 


HOW TO BUY 








Klaus Schulze 
Irrlicht 


OHR, 1972 





You say: “Irrlicht is the one 
for me, one of the most 
terrifying records, often had 
to turn it off, so relentless 
and unsettling is it.” 

John Hirst, via Twitter 


With his first solo album Klaus 
Schulze was working in the 
realm of ruin and decay, by 
means of a broken electric 
organ, malfunctioning speak- 
ers, and a cheap single mike 
recording of a rehearsal by the 
Berlin University Orchestra 
played backwards. Beginning 
with a soiled base of tarnished 
drones, Schulze adds a series 
of demonic Gothic organ 
chords to the reversed 
rehearsal that reverberate 
and summon up horrible new 
colours, shapes and tones. It is 
the sound of slow, slouching 
doom, eventually replaced by 
side two's Exil Sils Maria, a 
series of dying aircraft whines 
and extra-terrestrial dust 
storms, a new dawn on a 
ruined planet. Good times. 


DIG THIS 


The first thing you need to 
do is go online and experi- 
ence the wonder of Walter 
Wegmüller's Tarot (Ohr, 1973), 
an album disqualified from 
this feature due to being 
unaffordable in all its 
imprints. Tempel alumni 
Manuel Góttsching, Rosi 
Müller, Hartmut Enke, Harald 
Grosskopf and Klaus Schulze 
are joined by Jerry Berkers 
and Jürgen Dollase of 
Wallenstein, and Walter 
Westrupp of Witthüser & 
Westrupp for a double LP of 
wild folkloric ur-funk. "The 
whole of rock'n'roll in one 
double LP/ says Julian Cope 
in 1996's essential kosmische 
text, Krautrocksampler (out 
of print, but 

available as a 

PDF online). 

Also essential 

is David 

Stubbs' 

Future Days: 

Krautrock 

And The 

Re-Building 

Of Modern 

Germany. 





MOJO 101 


Sweet dreamer: guitar - 
luminary Bill Frisell, = 
“warm-hearted, | 
collaborative and ; 
discreet”, Rome, 2006. 


Dream: 


a 
вр 
Sim gn 


e Bill Frisell's 
father was a 
professor of 
biochemistry at the 
East Carolina 
University School 
Of Medicine who 
discovered a 
micro-organism 
named in his 
honour asthe 
Frisellium. 


ө Returning the 
favour for the score 
Frisell composed 
for a Far Side TV 
special, the 
metaphysical 
cartoonist Gary 
Larson depicted his 
brain in a drawing 
as “a madcap 
laboratory full of 
tubes, flags, 
machines, an ice 
cream cone, a 


ru Mil 


Me? \ 


jack-in-the-box, 
and, high up, ina 
chair atop a ladder, 
a scientist in a lab 
coat and flippers 
feeding large black 
musical notes into 
afunnel." 


e One of Frisell's 
less successful 
audio-visual 
entanglements 


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TG dE 4 


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Luciano Viti/Getty Images 


Authorised biography of a great, 
genial American guitarist makes 
the perfect accompaniment to 
his music. By Ben Thompson. 


Bill Frisell: 
Beautiful Dreamer 


ЖЖЖ 
Philip Watson 


FABER. 


ONTENT WARNING: anyone 

coming to Philip Watson's meticulous 

and musicologically astute authorised 
biography of the guitarist Bill Frisell fresh from 
John Lurie’s pungent and incident-packed 
memoir The History Of Bones needs to be 
aware that this New York downtown scene 
luminary’s book is the opposite of that one. 
Yet, warm-hearted, collaborative, and discreet 
to the point of being almost ambient, Beautiful 
Dreamer also manages to be the perfect 
companion-piece to the music of its subject. 

The young Frisell was first inspired to pick 

up a guitar as a child by the enthralling 
televisual spectacle of Mickey Mouse Club 
host Jimmie Dodd’s magical Mousegetar. 


Perhaps in the hope of spicing up the unfailing 





102 MOJO 





Strength of strings 


wholesomeness of the creative odyssey that 
ensued, Beautiful Dreamer has been 
provocatively subtitled “The Guitarist Who 
Changed The Sound Of American Music”. 

The definite article is a bit of a stretch 
there. Surely it should be “A Guitarist 
Who...”, unless we are meant to believe 
that the fearlessly unobtrusive Frisell made 
a uniquely seismic impact which eluded 
Robert Johnson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, 
Scotty Moore, Wes Montgomery, Jimi 
Hendrix, Sonny Sharrock, John Fahey, 
Eddie Hazel, Eddie Van Halen, Bob Mould, 
and/or any of the many other American 
guitarists with a more pressing claim to 
that exclusive title. 

Watson’s text itself generally eschews such 
compensatory hyperbole in favour of granular 
analysis, as he traces Frisell’s evolution from 
shy Pat Metheny protégé, 
through the hard knocks 
finishing school of Paul 
Motian, to a memorable spell 
as nerdily virtuosic Bud 
Abbott to John Zorn’s impish 
Lou Costello. 

Those who like their 
postmodern jazz guitar talk 
leavened with a little human 
intrigue will enjoy the 








was to contribute 
(at Hal Willner’s 


compressed psychodrama request) to the 
of Frisell’s off/on soundtrack of the 
| disastrous Bono/ 
bromance with super- Wim Wenders 
controlling ECM supremo movie vanity 


project The Million 
Dollar Hotel. The 
film's star Mel 
Gibson described it 
(ata promotional 
press conference) 
as being "as boring 
as a dog's ass". 


Manfred Eicher. 

“I remember him coming 
out of the control 

room and saying to me 
something like, *Could 
you just try thinking about 
John Abercrombie?’” And 
long-term collaborator Kermit Driscoll also 
conjures a tantalising flash of steel, insisting 
that in his own quiet, genial way, Frisell could 
be “as mean as Buddy Rich". 

The “exclusive listening sessions", in which 
Watson chews the fat with Frisell’s collabora- 
tors — from superfan Justin Vernon, AKA Bon 
Iver (who has That Was Then, his favourite 
track from the album Good Dog, Happy Man, 
tattooed on his back), to a waspish Paul Simon, 
to a downright sceptical Rhiannon Giddens 

— recall Watson's formative 





journalistic experiences as 
custodian of The Wire 
magazine's blindfold test. It's 
a risky move that throws up a 
nugget of pure gold from Van 
Dyke Parks, who offers the 
perfect summation of Frisell's 
less-is-more methodology: 
“Don’t just do something, 
stand there." 


Avalon.red 





THE RET AND FAU 
OF THE NEW АН 
BRITISH HEALY METAL 


Denim And 
Leather: The 
Rise And Fall 
Of The New 
Wave Of British 
Heavy Metal 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Michael Hann 


CONSTABLE. £20 


Heavy metal's early-'80s 
renaissance revisited. 


Former Guardian music editor 
Michael Hann's oral history 
gallops along like Iron 
Maiden's early anthem 
Phantom Of The Opera. The 
story of the NWOBHM is told 
here by musicians, fans and 
critics. While the genre birthed 
Maiden and Def Leppard, and 
inspired a young Lars Ulrich to 
form Metallica, many acts 
failed miserably. It's almost 
painful to read how Diamond 
Head plucked defeat from the 
jaws of victory by keeping the 
singer's mum as their manager 
despite interest from AC/DC's 
handler. Hann captures the 
humour ("There were a lot of 
women," divulges Saxon's 
Steve 'Dobby' Dawson. "That's 
why | was a regular at the 
Department Of Urology in 
Sheffield") and the pathos 
(“Plumstead, for a few months 
at least, was the centre of 
rock," suggests one of Angel 
Witch), but never mocks. 
Instead, Denim And Leather 
celebrates the passion and 
joyful tribalism of the music 
and the times. 

Mark Blake 


Swell Maps: 
1972-1980 
ЖЖЖЖ 


Jowe Head 
SOUNDS ON PAPER. £24.99 


Warm-hearted and 
entertaining insider account 
of Midlands DIY trailblazers. 


Over the four 
decades since 
Swell Maps called 
it a day, a wide 
variety of 
musicians have 
cited them as an 
influence, but this is the first 
official band history. A fine 
companion piece to Nikki 
Sudden's autobiography The 
Last Bandit, bass player and 
fellow songwriter Jowe Head's 
book shines a considered light 
from another perspective on 





the complex origins and 
motivations of this grouping 
of friends, as they move from 
early-1970s tape experiments 
and Dadaist bedroom sound 
collages to a self-financed 
studio visit in 1977, then a 
string of ground-breaking 
independent releases via a 
Rough Trade distribution deal. 
They fell out, as old friends 
sometimes do, splitting during 
a 1980 tour of Italy. Beautifully 
illustrated, and accompanied 
by a six-track 7-inch single of 
rarities, ample space is given 
to the recollections of the 
other surviving band 
members, while Head's own 
are unfailingly informative and 
often wryly entertaining. 

Max Décharné 


Ten Thousand 
Apologies: Fat 
White Family 
And The Miracle 
Of Failure 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Adelle Stripe & 


| jas Saoudi 
WHITE RABBIT. £20 


Fat White Family 
bandleader's detailed 
co-autobiography. 


Formed in 2011, Peckham- 
percolated Fat White Family are 
now available in surprisingly 
detailed non-fiction book 
form, despite warnings by 
displaced frontman Lias Kaci 
Saoudi (who co-authors with 
poet Adelle Stripe) that "fact 
has been used to make fiction." 
In fact, this fulsomely 
frightening-but-funny yarn 
reads as memorably as the 
band's lolloping, Aldi-burgling 
soundtrack sounds. Algerian- 
born Saoudi waxes proudly of 
his "ridiculous nose" and racist 
beatings during teenage years 
in Northern Ireland. Coalescing 
around like-minded lunatics in 
London, the rangy septet 
recreate Monty Python's Salad 
Days as a video, and 
experience an approximation 
of NME-sponsored indie cred. 
Ten Thousand Apologies builds 
a fastidious portrait of chaos, 
displacement and bad acid: the 
self-destructive Saoudi sees 
racism through "coal-black 
eyes" and daringly relates his 
excremental decision to "go 
Bobby Sands" at a gig in 
Sheffield. FWF emerge as 
vividly as an anecdote that 
leaves "Ninja Turtles bedsheets 
splattered in red." 

Andrew Collins 








Е : 
THOUSAND 
APOLOGIES 
FAT WHITE FAMILY 


AND THE 
MIRACLE OF FAILURE 





nlite ө жуа # э | 
America Over 
The Water 


ЖЖЖЖ 
Shirley Collins 


WHITE RABBIT. £14.99 


British folk treasure revisits 
her epic song searches 
through the US South. 


It's 15 years since this was 
initially published and, aside 
from the astonishing revival of 
her own singing career, Collins 
has used the time to reflect on, 
re-evaluate and rejuvenate 
memories of the year-long 
collecting journey she took 
with Alan Lomax in her early 
twenties in 1959 through the 
Southern states of America. 
More recently she's written an 
excellent autobiography, but 
this still offers a breathless 
insight into her wondrous 
adventure, along with 
incidental insights into the 
mores of the time (including 
shocking racism in Alabama) 
and her own wide-eyed 
reactions to it all, not least in 
her relationship with Lomax, 
which she entertainingly 
reassesses in the introduction. 
Elsewhere, her first-hand 
accounts of close encounters 
with the likes of Mississippi 





FILTER BOOKS 


Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, 
Texas Gladden and Almeda 
Riddle, interspersed with 
personal reminiscences, make 
this book a timeless gem. 

Colin Irwin 


The Music And 
Noise Of The 
Stooges, 1967-71 
Lost in the Future 


ЖЖЖ 
Michael 5 Begnal 


ROUTLEDGE. £120 


Cultural studies/musicology 
treatment of The Stooges. 
КОШ This isn't for 
LI E everyone - not 
| — least because of 
+ the whopping 
Ө £120 price tag (the 

Ede ebook is £33). 
pe wur 11 Academic in tone 
— the author teaches writing at 
Indiana's Ball State University 
— itframes The Stooges' output 
and achievement in terms of 
cultural and literary criticism 
and sound studies, citing 
Theodor Adorno, Jacques 
Attali and Pierre Bourdieu in 
particular to explore how a 
group seen as "commercial 
failures" in their own time 
become "consecrated" by 
future generations as punk 
incubators. Most interesting is 
Begnal's contextual analyses of 
the group as products of '60s 
social and political upheaval, 
who as scholars of jazz and 
blues were heavily steeped in 
the racial and cultural 
dialogues of the time. Within 
this he also dissects the 
relationship between market 
forces and the avant-garde, 
and the record industry's 
role as agents of capitalism 
and commodification. 

Lois Wilson 









— 





Frank & Co: 
Conversations 
With Frank 
Zappa 1977-1993 


KKK 
Co de Kloet 


JAWBONE. £14.95 


Multiple shades of Zappa, 
unexpurgated, from his 
unfashionable years. 


Given that the 
author once 
made a four- 
hour radio 
documentary on 
| The Mothers Of 
EM Invention's Freak 
Out!, it's no surprise that 
devotion and stamina are 
benchmarks of this 300-page 
anthology of encounters, 
interviews and assorted 
professional dealings with a 
sharp-eyed grump every bit 
the equal of Lou Reed and Bob 
Dylan. De Kloet earned Frank 
Zappa's trust early on, meeting 
him as a young fan reared on 
his father's copy of Freak Out!. 
Consequently, the book is 
virtually artist-sanctioned. 
Inevitably, Frank rails at the 
style-over-sound '80s and 
America's "religious mutants" 
driving the world towards 
Armageddon, views that have 
aged better than some of 
Zappa's Synclavier works and 
hamfisted Mothers remixes. 
The book also includes a 
manifesto of sorts (“I deal 
with all things which are 
wrong”) and routine detail 
on songs, performing and 
bossing his own label. 
The 'bonus' conversations with 
Zappa's friend Pamela 
Zarubica, plus former Mothers 
Flo & Eddie and Jimmy Carl 
Black, add some much-needed 
perspective. 
Mark Paytress 


| Metal gurus: Saxon 
help celebrate the 
passion and joyful 
tribalism of HM in 
Denim And Leather. 









>. 


FILTER SCREEN NS 





























* 















Photo courtesy of Apple Corps Ltd 





a "eo 
NEL os p 


Every 
Thing 


Get Back makes it to Blu-Ray. Nearly 
eight hours later, Danny Eccleston 
feels like he was in | he Beatles. 


The Beatles: Get Back 
KKKKK 


Dir: Peter Jackson 


DISNEY. BR 


N RECENT interviews with your writer in 
| MOJO magazine, Glyn Johns and Ethan 
Russell — the engineer and photographer 
embedded with The Beatles throughout the 
January 1969 sessions that produced Let It Be 
— the album and the film — and now, Peter 
Jackson's epic Get Back reboot, professed 
themselves bemused. Yes, The Beatles were 
pretty great and all, but would viewers really sit 
through more than seven hours of what's long 
been characterised as the group's fatal 
wounding, if not its actual death rattle? 

As the reports of MOJO readers' and 
Beatles fans’ delight have underlined since the 
doc’s November 25 debut on Disney t , the 
answer appears to be yes, and in many cases 
more than once. For while not without its 
longueurs (watching The Beatles organise their 
vocal harmonies, you're reminded more than 
once of the Heartbreak Hotel scene in Spinal 
Tap), the intimacy of the experience is 
addictive. You're in The Beatles! midst, 
smoking their Kents and drinking their Skol, 
gaping at the inspired takes, cringing as they 
bog themselves down in inferior material, 
sensing the minutest shifts in the political 
temperature between four lads who shook 
the world but find that adulthood leaves less 
and less space for their brothers and their 
individual emotional and creative needs. 

It's not always comfortable viewing. 

The concern that Jackson might soft-pedal 
Harrison's flit, or the run-up to it, proves 








104 MOJO 


ED 44 
Li 






End times: The Beatles 
in fiercely ‘on’ mode in 
Get Back. 


BALK 
LEARNT 


idea for their 
abandoned TV 
Special: that The 
Beatles share the 


*| from all over the 
world. The final 


— 4 have broken up!" 


properly at 







a DJ j says they didn't). 


We see George 


ө George's All 
Things Must Pass 





unfounded. The nigeles over 
riffs and harmonies are all 
there, and there's a beautifully 
edited segment, switching between the faces of 
Harrison, Lennon and McCartney as the latter 
two bond through a bash at Two Of Us, where 
you really feel the pain of the youngest Beatle, 
locked out of the love-in. Meanwhile, it’s hard 
not to be as exasperated as McCartney or the 
director of the 1969 footage, Michael 
Lindsay-Hogg (perma-chomping on an absurd 
stogie), as they try to persuade the others to 
end the project with a live show commensurate 
with The Beatles’ stature. As the camera 
lingers, in the wake of Harrison's departure, 
on a visibly upset McCartney, you realise why 
he won't let it lie. His big finale is not just for a 
TV show or a film but for The Beatles in toto. 
Please let it not end like this. 

While the atmosphere between The Beatles 
is almost invariably respectful and good-hu- 
moured — as McCartney notes, there are no 
“earth-splitting rows" — the end times theme is 
inescapable. We hear that the group has already 
discussed a “divorce” (“Who gets the kids?” 
John asks; Paul drolly suggests Lennon-McCa- 
rtney’s song publisher, Dick James). All appear 
to agree that they’ve lacked direction since 
manager “Mr Epstein”’s death in August 1967, 
and there’s much gallows humour regarding 
their Apple organisation’s bottomless 
money-pit, exemplified by “Magic Alex” 
Mardas’s comically inexhaustible supply of 
technological white elephants (on camera, 
Lennon takes delivery of a ridiculous bass with 
a revolving, double-sided neck), all prototyped 
on The Beatles’ dollar. Meanwhile, lurking like 


an off-stage villain is Allen 


couldn't Paul and 
John see it? 











WHAT WE'VE 


ө Paul's maddest 


| studio with a news 
team reporting live 


` | item: "The Beatles 


«| © They actually did 
| consider recording 


Twickenham (even 


though Glyn Johns 


shipping in his own 
Studer reel-to-reel. 


was spine-tingling 
from the start. Why 


their imminent break-up or unwelcome 

transformation into “weirdies” — the funny 

voices do not fully disguise their dismay. 

And their otherness is underlined as 

Lennon arrives to work at Savile Row in a 

vast white Rolls with a IV aerial on top (it 

gets a parking ticket). Conversely, there's 
much focus on their normality. The Beatles 
munch toast and discuss last night's telly 

— Lennon is thoroughly taken by what he 

saw of Fleetwood Mac. There are no airs or 

graces, or only In Jest as Lennon counters a 

note of constructive criticism from Glyn 

Johns with a cheery, *Don't come it, 

fuckface!" Their partners mingle happily, 

and there’s a lovely moment where Paul’s 
soon-to-be wife Linda turns up with 
daughter Heather and everyone from Ringo 
to roadie Mal Evans is delighted to entertain 
her. While it should be remembered that 

Get Back is an official Apple/Beatles 

product and would have gone through an 

exhaustive approval process involving all the 

Beatles or their estates, it’s important to 

note that Yoko’s permanent presence at the 

sessions, so often assumed to be a bone of 

contention, is barely remarked upon — 

except when McCartney notes that it would 
be absurd for future commentators to suggest 
that The Beatles broke up “because Yoko sat on 
anamp”. There are countless gags and cracks 
and reams of Beatlese. Ringo farts, and 
immediately owns up. 

All this stuff — this accumulation of action, 
inaction and interaction, steeped in character 
and context — builds into a warm portrait of 
four men at a crossroads; things will never be 
the same for them after this. It’s fascinating, 
but if viewers return to their Get Back 
Blu-Rays like Beatles fans will always return to, 
say, Revolver, it will be for the tangible and 
evident joy the band share in each other’s 
music-making. There's a take of 've Got A 
Feeling at Apple Studios, the first with Billy 
Preston on Fender Rhodes, that's so instantly 
electrifying it seems to light up The Beatles’ 
faces, and a Get Back — the first where Ringo 
introduces that familiar cantering beat — that 
makes you thrill at the terrifying proximity of 
what is genius in music and what is merely 
good. Harrison, restored and reconciled for 
now, is the one who suggests Get Back should 
be released instantly, as a single. 

Then there's the entirety of the Savile Row 
rooftop concert — the compromise solution 
that delivers something of the “payoff ” that 
McCartney's been seeking — during which 
The Beatles are so fiercely ‘on’ you realise what 
they've been missing all along: an audience, 
some jeopardy, and a proper deadline. After 
multiple Get Backs, I've Got A Feelings and 
Don't Bring Me Downs — a Dig A Pony and 
even One After 909 — you're 























Klein — soon to take over 

The Beatles! management, 

to McCartney's horror — who 

is conducting meetings with 

Lennon even as the Get Back/ 

Let It Be work continues. 
The claustrophobia of 

Beatle life is another keening 


note. The band read aloud 


from newspaper articles about 


"The 
intimacy 
of the 
experience is 





addictive.” 





praying they manage another 
song before the police shut 
them down. It’s that exciting. 
Much earlier in the fılm, 
after observing McCartney 
perform some magic at the 
keys, Ringo tells the camera, 
“Га watch an hour of him just 
playing piano.” Some of us 
might even stretch to 7:43. 





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R. Dean Taylor told Hit Parader in 1972. 

"Songs of the Shakespearean thing 
and the anti-hero, the hopelessness of life." 
Born Richard Dean Taylor on May 11, 1939, 
he made his singing debut aged 12 and 
played in country acts in his native Toronto. 
After scoring local hits including 1961 debut 
At The High School Dance, he was temporari- 
ly diverted working "a non-creative job" at 
the Vickers & Benson advertising agency. 
Then in 1963 an ad-agency friend arranged 
an audition at Detroit's new label Motown. 

At his Motown interview, Taylor gelled 


6 6 | WRITE ABOUT real-life things," 





106 MOJO 


Detroit Wanted 


Michael Lang 


BROOKLYN-BORN Michael Lang 
was running a head shop in Florida 
when he started co-promoting 
gigs: an early success was the 1968 
Pop And Underground Festival 

in Miami, when acts including 
Hendrix, The Mothers and Chuck 
Berry entertained an attendance 


with Brian Holland, and joined label subsidi- 
ary V.I.P. as a singer and songwriter. Osmosing 
composition, studio wisdom and production 
skills from the Holland-Dozier-Holland 
writing team, Taylor also recalled playing 
tambourine on songs including The Four 
Tops' Standing In The Shadows Of Love and 
Reach Out (l'Il Be There). When Holland-Dozi- 
er-Holland quit Motown in 1967, Taylor was 
one of The Clan who Berry Gordy looked to 
to keep the hits coming: he obliged by 
co-writing The Supremes' 1968 Number 1 
Love Child and 1969 Һ I'm Livin’ In Shame. 
His own career as a writer and producer 
was also on the up: in 1968 Gotta See Jane 
had gone Top 20 in Britain, while 1970's 
murder/fugitive drama Indiana Wants Me, 
released on Motown's rock label Rare Earth, 


of 25,000. After moving to 


Him 


Woodstock, he and three other 
promoters staged the moment- 
defining "Aquarian Exposition" at 
Max Yasgur's farm, where 400,000 
freaks watched CSNY, Jefferson 
Airplane, The Who, Sly Stone and 
many others over three days іп 
August 1969 (the 1970 documen- 
tary won an Oscar). After helping 
promote Woodstock '94 and 
another disastrous event in 1999, 
his plan to stage Woodstock 50 in 


Tamla-Motown 
chartbuster: R. Dean 
Taylor, runnin’ upa 
world insane. 





was a Top 5 hit in the US and, on Tamla 
Motown, the UK. Seven years after its original 
release, Northern soul acclaim made H-D-H 
co-write There's A Ghost In My House a UK 
Top 3 success in 1974 (the song would bea 
1987 Top 30 hit when it was covered by The 
Fall, who also recorded a version of Gotta 
See Jane). Yet in real time, further singles 
including 1971's suicide song Candy Apple 
Red failed to chart, and Taylor's hopes to 
make a film based on Indiana Wants Me 
entitled Tears On A Golden Circle went 
unrealised. Following 1970's I Think, Therefore 
I Am, his last solo LP was 1975's L.A. Sunset. 
He later ran his own Jane Records label, 
worked in his home studio in Los Angeles, 
and worked on his memoirs. 

lan Harrison 


2019 collapsed at the eleventh 
hour. Lang, who never changed 
his hairstyle, also ran the Just 
Sunshine label (his signings 
included Betty Davis and Karen 
Dalton), managed Joe Cocker, 
worked in film production and 
continued to work in event 
management. An idealist, his 
memoir, The Road To Woodstock, 
was published in 2009. "It was the 
time of all our lives,” he wrote. 
Clive Prior 


Getty, Alamy 










Don Wilson 


A Number 2 US hitand a UK 
Number 8 in summer 1960, The 
Ventures' twanging proto-surf take 
ofthe Chet Atkins-popularised jazz 
tune Walk, Don't Runis one of the 
all-time great guitar instrumentals. 
Born in Tacoma, Washington, Don 
Wilson had played the tiple and 
listened to country music before 
being hipped to guitar jazz while 
serving in the military in West 
Germany in the mid '50s. A fan of 
Les Paul and Duane Eddy, in 1958 
he met guitarist Bob Bogle, who 

he practised with in downtime on 
the Seattle building sites where 
they worked - he later recalled 
developing a percussive rhythm 
style to make up for the lack of a 
drummer. After recruiting Nokie 
Edwards on bass, and with the 
band name suggested by Wilson's 
mum and futurefan club president 
Josie, The Ventures were open for 
business in 1959. Scoring six US Top 
20 singles in all - with Edwards and 
Bogle having swapped roles, their 
cover of the theme to Hawaii Five-0 
reached US Number 4 in 1969 

– they achieved full power as a 
killer live band when drummer Mel 
Taylor joined. While the group's 
success at home had waned by the 
turn of the 70s, they remained 
huge in Japan, where they outsold 
The Beatles, toured annually and 
were decorated by the Emperor 
(Wilson posited 




















that the band's 

penchant for 

minor keys 

endeared them - 


Cool and 

the Twang: 
Don Wilson, 
Ventures lifer. 





to Japanese audiences). More than 
60 studio albums and dozens of 
live LPs show a group adept at 
surf rock, country, outer-space 
concepts and even psychedelia, 
with names paying homage 
including Carl Wilson, George 
Harrison and Keith Moon, who 
called 1964's The Ventures In 
Space his favourite LP. Wilson, by 
accounts the joker of the group, 
was the longest-serving Venture, 
playing with the band in varying 
formations and at their 2008 Rock 
and Roll Hall of Fame induction - 
"| still play the same,” he said in 
2006, "I do what! want and | have 
a good feel for it" - until he bowed 
out after a tour of Japan in 2015. 
In 2020 Wilson co-produced the 
documentary The Ventures: Stars 
On Guitars. A new line-up, with Mel 
Taylor's son Leon on drums, carries 
on The Ventures' legacy. 

lan Harrison 


Calvi 


Simon 


A singer with 
Parliament- 
Funkadelic, Calvin 
Simon's gospel- 
honed vocals 
appeared on 
1 several ofthe 

| ` Е aggregation's 
landmark albums, including 
Funkadelic's Maggot Brain (1971) 
and Parliament's Mothership 
Connection (1975). Originally from 
West Virginia, Simon moved to 

New Jersey as a teenager and 
worked in a barbershop, where 
he met fellow coiffeur George 
Clinton in 1955. They co-founded 
doo wop group The Parliaments, 
eventually scoring a hit in 1967 
with (I Wanna) Testify, 
» though by then, Simon 
B was serving in Vietnam. 
He rejoined the band 
after being demobbed, 
but a financial dispute 
led him to quit Clinton's 
organisation in 1978 
alongside fellow 





V ^ia, 
aat. 
^. | MEER 
| || | . . 


singers Fuzzy Haskins and Grady 
Thomas; the three resurfaced in 
1980 using the Funkadelic name 
for the album Connections And 
Disconnections. After that, Simon 
co-led the Parliaments alumni 
band Original P and released two 
solo gospel albums. Bootsy Collins 
announced Simon's death on 
Instagram, calling his friend and 
bandmate a “cool classic guy.” 
Charles Waring 


Elza Soares 


Born into a favela hardship few of 
us could imagine - by 21, she'd 
given birth seven times and been 
widowed - Soares would become 
one of Brazil's greatest stars, using 
her peerless voice to push her 
talent ever further out. Never 
satisfied with being labelled Rio's 
queen of samba, she excelled at 
big-band samba, acoustic bossa 
nova and, in later years, avant- 
garde rock. Her golden period 
covered 1960-75, though an 
affair with married footballer 
Garrincha led to her being 
publicly ostracised, and she 
barely recorded in the 25 years 
that followed. Her 21st-century 
rediscovery saw her mixing 
samba with electronica; 
supported by Caetano Veloso 
and Jorge Ben Jor, she became 
an unignorable voice for women's 
and LGBTQ rights, and an 
electrifying multidisciplinary star. 
Her 2016 album A Mulher Do Fim 
Do Mundo was a MOJO album 
ofthe year. 

David Hutcheon 


Rio grande: Elza 
Soares, from 
favela child to 
Brazilian royalty. 


Le Mesurier 





Of impeccable 
| British showbiz 
| pedigree - his 
mother was Carry 
On film matriarch 
| Hattie Jacques and 

F4 B his dad was Dad's 

* Jj ® Army's John Le 
Mesurier - Robin chose music as his 
vessel, having been encouraged by 
his jazz-loving father taking him to 
Ronnie Scott's. A blues aficionado, 
at 16 he was a member of Reign, 
whose 1970 ballad Line Of Least 
Resistance was written by The 
Yardbirds' Jim McCarty and Keith 
Relf. In 1973 he joined Mike Batt's 
furry novelty band The Wombles as 
Wellington, but had to leave the 
masked and anonymous act when 
the police raided the parental 
home and found a joint (he was 
fined £20). Helater played with 
Lion, Limey and Air Supply, joined 
Rod Stewart's band as guitarist and 
writer from 1980 to 1986, and was 
Johnny Hallyday's music director 
from 1994 until the French 
superstar's death in 2017. He also 
played sessions for Rita Coolidge, 
Ronnie Wood and Sylvie Vartan, 
co-composed the musicfor his 
father's 1978 spoken-word album 
The Velveteen Rabbit, formed Farm 
Dogs with Bernie Taupin and Jim 
Cregan and, in 2015, played with 
the reunited Faces. His memoir, 
A Charmed Rock’N’Roll Life, was 
published in 2017. 
Clive Prior 


MOJO 107 






























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+ PLUS BOB punt MISFITS JOY DIVISION WAER (mend Ja 


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Burke Shelley 


Learning guitar via 
f Bert Weedon's Play 
In A Day, Cardiff's 
Burke Shelley 
quit his quantity 
surveyor studies 
and switched to 
bass after seeing 
Dave Edmunds-fronted blues act 
Love Sculpture in 1967. Heformed 
power-trio Budgie that same year, 
his gutsy tenor/alto and love of 
wordplay distinguishing a revered 
proto-metal triptych comprised of 
1971's Budgie, 1972's Squawk and 
1973's Never Turn Your Back On A 
Friend. Later a committed Christian, 
Shelley loathed metal's dance with 
the devil and hair metal's posturing, 
but that didn’t dissuade Van Halen, 
Metallica and Iron Maiden from 
covering Budgie songs. Burke 
fronted the band until 2010, when 
damage caused by an aortic 
aneurysm compromised his voice. 
He passediin his sleep at Cardiff's 
Heath Hospital aged 71. “I'm not 
frightened of dying" he said in 
2020. “I know where I’m going." 


Rosa Lee 
Hawkins 


New Orleans 
singers Rosa Lee 
Hawkins, her elder 
sister Barbara Ann 
. and their cousin 
Joan Marie 
Johnson were 
| billed as Little Miss 
And The Muffets before becoming 
The Dixie Cups, after a brand of 
disposable paper tumblers. The 
first release on Leiber and Stoller's 
Red Bird label, debut 45 Chapel Of 
Love was a US Number 1 in May 
1964. They followed up with 
Number 12 hit People Say and May 
'65's Iko Iko, a Number 20 success. 
It was their last hit: Rosa Lee later 
worked in modelling and make-up, 
but continued to sing with Barbara 
Ann as The Dixie Cups, joined by 
childhood friend Athelgra Neville. 
Hawkins' 2021 memoir Chapel Of 
Love revealed a harrowing tale of 
abuse by manager Joe Jones, but 
she stressed she sang from the 
heart always: "When we walk 
on-stage," shetold The Arizona 
Republic, “we leave him behind." 


| Getthe message: 


the fruitful 
James Mtume. 


James Mtume 


Raised in a jazz environment іп 
Philadelphia, James Forman was 
given his Swahili name (meaning 
‘messenger’) as a member of black 
nationalists the US Organisation in 
the late '60s, when he made his 
recording debut on the 1970 LP 
Kawaida. In New York he went on to 
play percussion with Freddie 
Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis 


FX 


co-wrote 1977's hit Donnie 
Hathaway duet The Closer | Get To 
You) before founding “sophisti- 
funk” group Mtume in 1978. In 1983 
the band’s much-sampled Juicy 
Fruit was an R&B chart Number 1. 
He also won a Grammy for 
co-writing Stephanie Mills’ 1980 US 
Top 10 hit Never Knew Love Like 
This Before with Reggie Lucas, 
with whom he produced albums 
for The Spinners, Lou Rawls and 
Phyllis Hyman. He later produced 
Mary J. Blige, wrote for TV and 
worked in talk radio in New York. 


James McNair 


DETROIT COBRAS voice 


(right, b.unknown) 

worked asa 

stripperanda 

butcher before 

joining what 

became 

garage-soul 

outfit The 

Detroit Cobras 

in 1994 — reputedly 
taking to the stage 
without ever having sung in 
public before. Exhuming 
forgotten pearls from the 
substrata of rock'n'roll and 
R&B, the group transcended 
their covers band' tag with 
guts and aplomb, releasing 
five LPs. Friend and 
collaborator Greg 
Cartwright wrote of her 
"vitality, herfierce intensity 
and her vulnerability". 


VERSATILE vocalist/ 
songwriter 

(b.1947) sang with 
the likes of Aretha Franklin, 
the Ramones and (alongside 
Luther Vandross) Chic, and 
wrote songs for Dusty 
Springfield, Boz Scaggs, 
Whitney Houston, Chaka 
Khan, Feargal Sharkey and 
others. A key voice in James 
Taylor's band from 1977, the 
Detroit native also recorded 
with his band Rosie and solo, 
mentored Lenny Kravitz, 
and appeared in 2013's 
backing singers doc 20 Feet 
From Stardom. 


lan Harrison 


and Roberta Flack (for whom he 


THEY ALSO SERVED 


SINGER 
(b.1944) 
was brother to teen 
idol Eden Kane 
and Where Do 
"YOU Go le 
My Lovely? 
hitmaker Peter 
Sarstedt. [he 
younger sibling, 
he worked with 
Joe Meek (as Wes 
Sands), played with 
big-in-Sweden Londoners 
The Deejays (as Clive Sands), 
released solo albums (as Clive 
Sarstedt) and recorded 1973's 
Worlds Apart Together LP with 
the Sarstedt Brothers, 
before having his sole UK hit 
with 1976's Number 3 cover of 
Hoagy Carmichael's My 
Reisistance Is Low. He had 
further chart success in the 
Low Countries. 


ЕО ОЕЕО Ваше 
(0.1956) 
epitomised the intrepid UK 
independent A&R man of the 
'805/905, a job requiring 
boundless enthusiasm as well 
as musical vision — qualities 
Ross deployed in 1990 when 
signing a shambolic quartet 
called Blur. Erstwhile Sounds 
journalist Ross also 
mentored 
Crazyhead, 
Jesus Jones, 
Dubstar and 
Idlewild.His J 
death from 


w 
[ — 
\ 
"ü = 
= 


cancer on January 25 
prompted many tributes, 
none more heartfelt than 
Food founder Dave Balfe's, 
who called him, “wry and 
dryly funny, a uniquely 
talented spotter of talent... 
he was a great friend.” 


REGGAE GUITAR/KEYBOARD 


(below, 0.1950) played with 
keyboardist/producer 
brother Geoffrey in bands 
including the Mighty 
Mystics in the ‘60s: both 
joined The Now Genera- 
tion, house band of 
Kingston's Federal label, from 
1970. He later worked with 
Jamaican talent including 
Inner Circle, Peter Tosh, 
Sly & Robbie, Lee Perry, 
Black Uhuru and Grace 
Jones, and internationally 
with Serge Gainsbourg, 
Marianne Faithfull and 
Joe Cocker. 


BEATLES FILM collaborator 
(b.1923) 
was "fixer" and associate 
producer on A Hard Day's 
Night in 1964 (a job taken on 
the advice of his children) and 
producer of 1967's Magical 
Mystery Tour. He was later 
appointed head of 
Apple's film division, 
though his plans 
for a Beat- 
les-starring 
version of Lord 
Of The Rings 


wastorpedoed by JRR 
Tolkien.He was name- 
checked (as Denis O'Bell) in 
You Know My Name (Look Up 
The Number), the B-side of 
Let It Be, the last 45 released іп 
The Beatles’ lifetime. 


TROMBONE/KEYS/FLUTE 
player and arranger 

(0.1943) 
co-founded New York 
jazz-rockers Blood, Sweat & 
Tears in 1967. After winning 
two Grammys for his work 
with the group, he left in 1971, 
having already moved into TV 
and film scores. In the '80s he 
composed for jazz and 
orchestra, and later adapted 
his memoir Musical Being 
into a live show. 


кш ШОО КОШЕ 


(b.1934) began 

his career in 

1961: in 

addition to 
photographing 
America's civil 
rights movement 
and numerous '70s 
film sets of note, he will 

be remembered for his LP 
covers for Riverside and 
portraiture of musicians 
including The Velvet 
Underground, Barbra 
Streisand and, in particular, 
David Bowie, whose Low 
and Station To Station LP 
sleeves he shot. 


4 


Clive Prior 


DOO-WOP COMPOSER 

(below, 
b.1936) sang with The 
Scarlets before founding 
The Five Satins in New 
reer), CONNEC а 557 
In 1956 he sang lead on the 
sublime smash hit In The Still 
Of The Night, but army 
service obliged his exit. He 
returned in 1965, leading the 
group through local acclaim 
and rock'n'roll nostalgia. He 
also recorded LPs with Black 
Satin (1976) and Fred Parris 
And The Satins (1982). 


GUITARIST 
(b.1949) 
founded two-drummer, 
full-on art-rock cults MX-80 
(originally MX-80 Sound) in 
Bloomington, Indiana in 1974. 
They released records on 
Island and The 
Residents’ Ralph 
label, covered 
Grand Funk 
Railroad, and (as 
MX-80 Sound) 
released their 
last album, 
Hougher House, 
on January 21. 
Friend and 
collaborator Steve Albini 
hailed Anderson, who worked 
atSan Francisco's Amoeba 
Records for more than 25 
years, as "an effortless virtuoso 
with an earforthe raw and 
jagged.” A final MX-80 LP, 
Better Than Life, awaits release. 
Jenny Bulley, Keith Cameron 
and lan Harrison 


MOJO 109 





110 MOJO 


: MACHINE. 


...€he Motortown 
Revue hits Britain! 


The Finsbury Park Astoria, 

MARCH 20 AKA The Rainbow Theatre, 
is an evangelical church these days. But on an 
early spring night in 1965- over two shows at 
6.40pm and 9.10pm – it was witness to a 
different kind of divine inspiration. The Motor- 
town Revue, a star-packed Motown package 
including The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, 
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Martha 
& The Vandellas, all backed by the Earl Van 
Dyke Sextet, was playing its first UK tour date. 

Soul fans had been in a state of intense 

excitement for weeks. When the tour party, 
accompanied by Motown kingpin Berry Gordy 
Jr., arrived at London Airport on March 15, they 
were met by a delegation of the self-styled 
“Swingers and Friends” of the British Tamla 
Motown Appreciation Society, headed by 
fanclub president and soul proselytiser 
Dave Godin. “| was sick and tired of 
second-rate British acts ripping 
off the originals with fifth-rate 
cover versions,” Godin told soul 
mag Manifesto a year before 
his death in 2004, referring to 
the Anglo beat group habit of 
covering Motown hits. “Some of 
us over here knew а damned fine 
record when we heard it." 

. . Withthe party billeted at 

E the Cumberland Hotel 

= near Marble Arch, the 

> trip had another 


Фф 


© important 















Hitsville UK: (clockwise from left) 
Motortown Revue stars The Supremes 
on the Ready Steady Go! special; The 
Miracles and others arrive at London 
Airport, March 15, 1965; the RSG! 
special, with Smokey Robinson singing 
and Dusty Springfield compering; hit 
45 Stop! In The Name Of Love; (below) 


L^ 


ا ` 


Motown boss Berry Gordy and Martha 
& The Vandellas’ Dancing In The Street. 


= a E. E = 
тр 





objective. After dispensing with licensing 
deals, this month saw the launch of the UK 
Tamla Motown label with a special showcase 
atthe headquarters of new partners EMI on 
March 19. Another promotional coup would 
bethe Ready Steady Go! TV broadcast, when 
the touring group, plus a specially parachut- 
ed-in Temptations, were filmed live at the 
Rediffusion Television Studios in Wembley on 
March 18. Entitled The Motown Special, the 
plan was orchestrated by programme editor 
and Motown society member Vicki Wickham, 
who putitto executive producer Elkan Allan 
that a half-hour of Detroit's inest was exactly 
what the kids were crying out for. Allan agreed, 
and suggested Wickham’s pal and fellow soul 
nut Dusty Springfield compere. "Dusty 
thought she'd died and gone to heaven,” 


Ҹ 


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E Mari] а and | 


(йе Vandel las 


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| EARL VÁN-DVET А 


tage 






Wickham told 2009 BBC doc The Motown 
Invasion. “It was her idea of absolute bliss.” 

Yet the show would not be broadcast until 
April 28, after the 21-date/two-shows-a-night 
tour had finished. When it came to bums on 
seats, even an operator like Gordy was not 
immune from hubris. Dave Godin had Gordy's 
ear, and some commentators have suggested 
that he’d exaggerated the popularity of 
Motown in Britain. Consequently, from the 
first date in London, the Motortown Revue 
was not distinguished by packed halls. In her 
memoir Dreamgirl: My Life As A Supreme, 
Mary Wilson recalled it as “the infamous 
ghost tour... for the first time in as long as 
many of us could remember, we were 
playing to half-filled houses... financially 
the tour was a flop.” 

She also noted that the artists found the 
British food bland, the toilet paper waxy (“this 
wasn't anyone's idea of civilisation") and the 
crowds unwilling to cheer until a song was 
over. Yet with chart stars Georgie Fame & The 
Blue Flames added to the bill, they struggled 
through the basic amenities and cold and 
travelled on a 52-seater charabanc, joking, 
smoking and gambling their way down 
interminable A-roads as they zig-zagged 
between such hitherto unknown temples of 
soul as the Glasgow Odeon, Bournemouth 
Winter Gardens and, prophetically, the Wigan 
ABC (Gordy and The Supremes switched to a 
limo after one gruelling road-slog). 

Eyewitnesses including Tony 
Blackburn, soul scribe Adam White 
and Wickham didn't dispute the low 
turnouts, but remained in awe of the 
show, complete with elegant stagewear, 
sharp dance routines and one killer 
song after another. With eminent Funk 
Brother Van Dyke and his crack band 





starting proceedings, Martha 
& The Vandellas and Georgie 
Fame played the opening half, 
followed by Smokey Robinson & 
The Miracles, Stevie Wonder and 
headliners The Supremes in the second. 

The dates, apart from two shows at the 
Paris Olympia in April, went unrecorded. But 
ataste of what the Motortown Revue must 
have been like survived. The Ready Steady 
Go! special, broadcast after the party was 
backin the States, remains a thing of wonder. 
With a Detroit skyline and the acts' names in 
lights for a stage set, the programme's many 
highlights included The Supremes' Stop! In 
The Name Of Love, The Vandellas' Dancing In 
The Street, The Temptations’ My Girl, Dusty 
and Martha Reeves cracking up with 
laughter singing Wishin’ And Hopin’, and 
the whole crew doing Mickey's Monkey 
en masse, with lead vocals by Smokey, 
harmonica by Stevie and an outbreak of 
the Jerk dance routine. The mind-blown 
schoolkids clapping in the audience seem 
unable to believe what they’re seeing. 

Driven by TV, Motown’s chain reaction 
had begun. On March 31, US Number 1 Stop! 
In The Name Of Love entered the UK charts 
at 44, rising to Number 7 on April 21. The 
following year, Tamla Motown acts such as 
The Four Tops, The Temptations and The Isley 
Brothers were also scoring massive hits in the 
UK and beyond. The disappointing receipts 
ofthe Motortown Revue had been worth it, it 
seemed. As Gordy noted in Andy Neill's RSG! 
history The Weekend Starts Here: "If Motown 
in America was born in Detroit, Motown in 
the rest of the world was born in the UK.” 

lan Harrison 


‘MARCH 20 Held at Sala di Concerto 
della RAI auditorium in 
Naples, what was then called the Eurovision 
Song Contest Grand Prix is won by Luxem- 
bourg’s France Gall. The victorious tune is the 
rollicking, subversive Poupée de Cire, Poupée 
de Son, composed by Serge Gainsbourg, who 
then finds himself in demand as a yé-yé pop 
songwriter. Britain comes second with Kathy 

















INS EUROVISION 









Bob Dylan 
detonates 
his “psychic 
explosion”. 


Dylan’s first 
US hit 45 © 
MARCHIS] Subterranean Homesick 


Blues is released. It’s taken from the 
half-electric/half-acoustic LP Bringing It 
All Back Home, which follows on March 

22 and takes his lyrics to new surrealistic 
heights: in the sleevenotes, he asserts, 
“My poems are written in a rhythm of 
unpoetic distortion... with a melodic 
purring line of descriptive hollowness 

- seen at times through dark sunglasses 
an' other forms of psychic explosion." 

This month he plays dates in Canada 

and California with Joan Baez. In May, 
Subterranean Homesick Blues reaches 
Number 39 on the US singles charts and 
Number 9 in the UK. The same month, D.A. 
Pennebaker films the song's pioneering 
promo clip in an alley near London's Savoy 
Hotel during the singer's UK tour. 


Poupée scoop: France 
Gall and songwriter 
Serge Gainsbourg 
victorious at 
Eurovision 1965. 


т 








Kirby's | Belong, with orchestral direction 

by early Mellotron adopter Eric Robinson, 
while France's Guy Mardel's N'Avoue Jamais 
(Never Admit) comes third. In all, 18 singers, 
including Austria's Udo Jurgens, Ireland's 
Butch Moore and, from communist Yugosla- 
via, Vice Vukov, take part. Gall recorded an 
Italian version in Rome on the way to Naples, 
which is released soon after. 


" PASSION DEBA 


Е. 


STONES ON ТОР 
The Rolling Stones 
(above) are back at the top 
ofthe UK LP charts with their 
second album ...No.2. Three 
Jagger-Richards originals 
are included. On March 24, 
45 The Last Time also begins a 
three-week stint at Number 1. 


RISING TRAMP 

| Roger Miller's hobo 
anthem King Of The 

Road peaks at Number 4 

in the US. It enters the UK 

charts at 35 on March 24, 

rising to Number 1 in May. 


FREEDOM MARCH 
7 The Reverend Martin 
Luther King Jr. finishes 

leading an estimated 25,000 
civil rights marchers on the 
four-day walk from Selma, 
Alabama to the state capital 
Montgomery, where he 
delivers his celebrated "How 
Long, Not Long" speech. 


FABS TAPES 
7 Press notices appear 
offering interview tapes 
for sale of The Beatles 
talking to "Derek Taylor, their 
friend, former publicity officer 
and press agent. . . there is 
wit, sarcasm and common 
sense," in the Bahamas. The 
following month, ads advise 
they are no longer available. 


NASHVILLE BLUES 
79 RCA Victor's new 
Nashville studio opens 
with a party attended by 
Chet Atkins, Al Hirt and 
others. The Nashville Building 
And Construction Trades 
Council picket the event, 
protesting that a non-union 
contractor built the facility. 


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SINGAPORE 
SINGLES 
MARCH 6 


I COULD EASILY 

FALL (IN LOVE 
WITH YOU) CLIFF 
RICHARD AND 
THE SHADOWS 
COLUMBIA 


YOU’RE MY 
REMEDY THE 
MARVELET TES TAMLA 


COME SEE 
ABOUT ME THE 
SUPREMES MOTOWN 


YOU NEVER 

CAN TELL 
CHUCK BERRY 
CHESS 


GONE, GONE, 

GONE THE 
EVERLY BROTHERS 
WARNER BROS 


ROCK AND 

ROLL MUSIC 
THE BEATLES 
PARLOPHONE 


GENIE WITH 

THE LIGHT 
BROWN LAMP 
THE SHADOWS 
COLUMBIA 


NO TIME DAVE 

DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, 
MICK AND TICH 
FONTANA 


SEE YOU LATER, 

ALLIGATOR 
MILLIE SMALL 
FONTANA 


10 СОМЕ GO 
WITH ME 
SUGAR'N'SPICE 
LOMA 


Two socksy: Cliff 
'n' The Shads at 
Number 1. 






TOT | pema HORTE M baak ЖИИ ! parni 
yı TO f I on ШИН DIRETER ep ERE т 


Thesp Lorna Maitland on the poster for Russ 


Meyer's cult movie of “ribaldry and violence". "| 
should not have made it,” Meyer later reflected. 





MOJO 111 





ASK MOJO 





| etus solve the niggling 
rock mysteries and half- 
remembered enigmas that 
plague your waking hours. 


I was gobsmacked and nota little disturbed 
by the Charlie Drake/Genesis team-up single 
mentioned in Ask MOJO 339. Unfortunately, 
I have a problem with ‘comedy’ records. Can we 
have some good examples of so-called ‘credible’ 
talents working with unexpected collaborators 
in amore serious manner, like when Bowie 
produced Lulu? 

Kevin Barton, via e-mail 


MOJO says: “I was not cool and he was cool," 
was Lulu’s verdict on her brief dalliance with 
Bowie. Debates about what constitutes 
“cool” apart, you could probably posit 
something similar about Now Ain't 
The Time For Your Tears, the 1993 LP 
Elvis Costello and Cait O'Riordan 
wrote for Wendy James from 
Transvision Vamp. Based 

on James's short tenure 

as an opinionated pop star, 
Costello later called it "a 

fumbled opportunity. But not 

my opportunity." There's also the 
time when Domino label electronic 
artiste Max Tundra wrote and produced 
Daphne & Celeste's 2018 LP Save The World, 

18 years after the New Jersey duo's brief 
brush with pop fame, Ice-T's contributions 

to Mr. T's Be Somebody (Or Be Somebody's Fool) 
1984 kids' LP, which included the viral Treat Your 
Mother Right, and Prince's '80s work with Bellshill's 
Sheena Easton. Nick Cave, Iggy Pop and Pet Shop 
Boys queuing up to record with Kylie Minogue 

also counts (Tame Impala's Kevin Parker, 
meanwhile, has claimed he's written an entire 

LP for her). Back on a comedians-with-serious- 
collaborators tip, meanwhile, thanks to Amsterdam 
reader Tonio van Vugt for reminding us that Brian 
May produced the 1987 LP by Young Ones alumni 
metal spoofers Bad News and played the solo on 
their version of Bohemian Rhapsody "with his 


112 MOJO 


Who crossed the f 
‘cool barrier? | 









rr - 


٩ 
ET 


we 


guitar upside down". Of course, "o 
we remain interested in all your 
favourite unexpected studio 
collaborations, whether done with 


astraight face or strictly for the laughs. 


DID PEEL PLAY A 
SANDINISTA! SIDE? 


John Peel once played the Banshees' The Scream 
all the way through. Did he ever play a complete 
side of The Clash's Sandinista! and, if so, which 
one? Money/bet/friend etc etc. 

Steve Richards, via e-mail 


m" 
The Hour oF 


MOJO says: Though Peel is reputed to have been 
lukewarm about The Clash - his memoir Margrave 
Of The Marshes recalls an abandoned 1978 session 
by the band with barely-concealed 
irritation (“they were so out of their 
heads... nota very punk attitude”) 
- he aired them regularly from 
'77 onwards, including 
numerous spins of tracks from 
1980's triple-LP grand folly 
Sandinista!. We can't find any 
evidence he played an entire 
side of it, unfortunately, 
though he did play both sides 
ofthe band's second LP Give 
'Em Enough Rope in full on two 
shows in October '78. Could this 
bethe memory wagered upon? 


WHERE'S THE 
INFECTED FILM? 


I saw The Comeback Special concert film by 

The The and thought it was great. But why 

hasn’t Matt Johnson made the wild ‘video album’, 

created for 1986's Infected LP, available again? 
Pete Scott, via e-mail 


MOJO says: Over to Matt, who says: “I want to 

do that. | have a very complicated relationship 
with [former label] Sony and I’m having very 
slow-motion dialogue. What I'd like to do is 
license it and release it through my own label, 

so 1 can doa very high-quality version. It had some 
really wonderful imagery. That was a hell of an 
experience doing that project. Let's hope we can 







Pee’ 


SadiyDrawa Boy 


Ф 4 E It's great when you 
collaborate, yeah: 
^ (clockwise from left) Kylie 
and Nick Cave team up 
for 1995's Where The 
Wild Roses Grow; The 
| Clash: did Peelie play a 
. - Д whole side of Sandinista!?; 
ч * a i Doves' Bewilderbeastly 
a behaviour; The The's 
Infected video. 


__ ама 
Bewilderiteast 


get that out. I'd also 
like to license [1993 documentary] From Dusk 'Til 
Dawn and [1991 gig movie] Versus The World. 
Hopefully Sony will agree to that." 


WHEN DID DOVES PLAY? 


Were the three members of Doves simultaneous- 
lythe backing band on any songs on Badly Drawn 
Boy's 2000 LP The Hour Of Bewilderbeast? They all 
have credits on the record. 

Vince Docherty, via e-mail 


MOJO says: We asked, and Doves said in a 
statement: "Yes, we all played together on 
Disillusion and Pissing In The Wind at the old Twisted 
Nerve studio in New Mount Street (Manchester). 
[Keyboardist and fourth Dove, Martin] Rebelski 

too." The Mercury Prize-winning LP also featured 
contributions from Twisted Nerve label boss Andy 
Votel and was marked by anniversary gigs in 2015. 


ROCK'S GREATEST SIDE 
HUSTLES REVISITED 


Iread in ASKMOJO 333 about Stannah Stairlifts 
supposedly financing the Warp label, and Mark 
Knopfler writing a song about McDonald's burger 
magnate Ray Kroc. A few years ago, | was told one 
of Dire Straits once marketed a hangover cure. Is 
there any truth in this? And whatare the other 
novel sidelines by musicians? 

Graham Martin, via e-mail 


MOJO says: You may bethinking of the band's 
former promoter Paul King, imprisoned in 2004 
for afraud involving hangover remedy Soba, made 
out of volcanic rock. King, who died in 2015, also 
worked with The Police and Tears For Fears. Please 
let us know your best examples of unusual rock 
enterprise - NB: no hot sauces or beers please! 


Have you gota challenging musical question for the MOJO 


Brains Trust? E-mail askmojo@bauermedia.co.uk and 
we'll help untangle your trickiest puzzles. 





Getty (2) 


Getty (3) 





| ANSWERS 
MOJO 339 


Across: 1 Grace Slick, 
6Fans, 10 Give 
Peace A Chance, 

11 Evergreen, 15 
Grant-Lee Phillips, 

17 Rat, 19 Night, 21 
Horace Andy, 23 
Complication, 24 Lick, 
25 Final, 26 UFO, 28 
Crazy, 31 RCA, 33 Awe, 
34 Perfect, 35 Kids, 37 
Allen, 40 Delroy, 41 
Atticus Ross, 44 ACR, 
46 Home, 47 Boys, 49 
Gatefold, 50 Moon, 51 
Amos, 53 Owen, 54 
Lola, 57 Swing, 58 
GZA, 59 Dozy, 61 
Shake The Disease, 
62 Nina Simone, 

63 Hi-hat. 


Down: 2 River, 3 
Copperhead Road, 4 
Lycanthropy, 5 Claire, 
7 Amnesiac, 8 Sheryl, 
9 Cheap Trick, 10 Gary, 
11 Earache, 12 Egg, 13 
Nat, 141 Say A Little 
Prayer, 16lan 
Anderson, 18 Tim 
Buckley, 20 Iris, 22 
EMF, 24 Low, 27 Fair, 
29 Zola, 30 Henry 
Mancini, 32 Psycho, 33 
Ant, 36 DOA, 38 Ether, 
39 Sundowner, 40 
Dobro, 42 Ivor, 43 
Shot, 45 Jail, 48 
Sandman, 52 Sly, 55 
Alarm, 56 Queen, 58 
Giant, 60 Zwan, 61 
SOS. 


















Love to lugs you, baby 


modern finish is discreet, while the 
ergonomic design makes it super 
comfortable to play your favourite 
songs for hours on end. 

These cans retail at a cool £1,799, and 
we have a pair up for grabs for this issue’s 
crossword prize! So complete rock-clue 
lobe-teaser Michael Jones’ crossword and 
send a scan of it to mojo@bauermedia.co.uk, 
making sure to type CROSSWORD 341 in the 
subject line. Entries without that subject line 
will not be considered. Please include your 
home address, e-mail and phone number. 
The closing date for entries is April 2. For the 
rules of the quiz, see www.mojo4music.com 


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"EDT а 

"EE E 1. 


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8 He hit big with Dread In A Babylon 

in 1975 (1-3) 

9 See photoclue A (9,5) 

11 Gillian from New Order (7) 

14 ----- Honey (Radiohead album) (5) 

15 How drummer and funk band founder 
Larry James described himself? (3) 

17 Freeing lead single from Oasis' 
Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants (2,3,2,3) 
20 "You got what you wanted" (PiL) (6,5) 
21 Frank, who released Hot Rats (5) 

23 Bloc Party's Okereke (4) 

25 Identical numbers by Beirut, Destiny's 
Child and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2,2,2) 

26 Only studio album by psych rockers 
The Millennium (5) 

29 First name of Chapman, Hurley or 
McGoldrick (7) 

30 She made a fool out of the Electric 
Light Orchestra (4,5) 

32 Their most recent release was Flying 
Dream 1 (5) 

35 First Eno-produced James album (4) 
36 This could be Gordon or 24 Down (3) 
38 Case, vocalist who is one of The New 
Pornographers (4) 

40 Seventies supergroup formed by 
Stephen Stills (8) 

41 US punk act who went Beneath The 
Shadows (1.1.1.1.) 

42 Opening track on Springsteen's 
Darkness On The Edge Of Town (8) 

45 Drummer who had his own Five 
during the British Invasion (4,5) 

46 Friend of Slade (4) 

47 It links Chic and a track on Pink Floyd's 
More (4) 

49 A Bjórk song, or possibly Campbell (6) 
52 Blur's civil servant Jacks (5) 

54 City in which you might find Autumn, 
an Englishman, or Some Time (3,4) 

55 Mark Knopfler's first film as a 
soundtrack composer (5,4) 

59 Electronic and experimental festival 
held in Barcelona (5) 

60 Can album before Ege Bamyasi (4,4) 
61 See photoclue B (3,5) 

62 Their debut was Gyrate (5) 


1 Anxiously obsessed with Paul Weller (4,2) 
2 How to play it in West Side Story (4) 

3 Music award given by the BPI (4) 

4 Guitarist — he's with The Band (6,9) 

5 Could be Michelle or Papa John (8) 

6 The ----- (Scott Walker album) (5) 

7 In the original line-up, he was the 
bandmate of Allen, Ayers and Ratledge (5) 
10 Bill Callahan's old band name (4) 

12 Generation X singer (5,4) 

13 Nelson, Wilson or Valance (5) 

14 Saxophonist who's worked with John 
Coltrane and Sam Shepherd (7,7) 

16 George Martin's Oxford Street studio (3) 
18 Finished track by Portishead (4) 

19 See photoclue C (10,4) 

21 --- TV, U2 tour that followed the 
release of Achtung Baby (3) 

22 Refuge founded by David Geffen (6) 
24 Two quarters of The Breeders (4) 

27 Pete Townshend's signature move (8) 
28 He must die, according to Traffic (4,10) 
31 Tom, whose albums include We Have 
Sound and Luck (3) 

32 Black Sabbath's previous name (5) 

33 "What is it good for?" (Temptations) (3) 
34 Album by 45 Across's band (5,2,5) 

37 Kaplan, co-founder of Yo La Tengo (3) 
39 After Revenge, Peter Hook's side 
project (6) 

42 Prefix used on most of Depeche 
Mode's Mute single catalogue numbers (4) 
43 Genre of Jamaican music (9) 

44 Gem of a track by T.Rex (5) 

48 Midge, who first topped the charts 

as a member of Slik (3) 

50 Failed to hold on to this Coldplay 
song (4) 

51 2007 Ani DiFranco retrospective (5) 

52 How many Little Birds? (5) 

53 The --- Of Noise (3) 

56 Album by Swans (3) 

57 Theirs was The Prodigy's singles 
collection (3) 

58 Jesca, whose first LP was Kismet (4) 


MOJO 113 


F 


\ 
Л! MEE к 


Fotex/Shutterstock, Tom Steinseifer 


= 





SUMMER 1973 


Long ago, before | met Ralf [Hutter] and 
Florian [Schneider], | had played in school and 
amateur bands such as The Beathovens, Fruit, 
Spirits Of Sound. With the Spirits Of Sound, 
my last amateur band, we had an exceptional- 
ly gifted guitar player - Michael Rother. We 
played at school parties and clubs. One club 
was in Mónchengladbach, called Budike. 

In this club Florian was watching my style 
playing drums. My style was simple, | played 
just what was needed, no more no less, 
minimal so to speak. 

Michael was later invited to play for 
Kraftwerk and this broke my most beloved 
amateur band. | was pretty angry about the 
situation. The Kraftwerk brothers seemed to 
be in desperate search of good musicians. 
Drummers were their biggest problem, both 
explained later, because their former ones 
played too much rhythm, too complicated 
figures for their music 
themes. And - too loud! 

Florian had talked to his 
partner Ralf and they at last 
invited me to a flashy bistro 
called Mata Hari for talks. We 
had some cold drinks and 
the duo tried to explain why 
they were looking for a new 
drummer, and that they'd 
seen me playing with the 
Spirits at the Budike and 
liked it very much. The pair 
were very different in style, 
very unusual in their choice 
of words and grammar. To 
be honest, | felt like they 
were from another star. | 
was curious and agreed to 


114 MOJO 


| ДУ 
Wolfgang Flur 
and Kraftwerk 





Let’s Werk together: KW (from left) Ralf 
Hütter, Klaus Röder, Wolfgang Flür and 
Florian Schneider, 1974: (below) the 
sleeve to 1986 single Der Telefon Anruf, 
with Rebecca Allen’s computer portraits 
of the group; (left) Flür today. 


1 


| 


F 


an invitation to their rehearsal room, which 
did not yet have the brand Kling Klang. It all 
happened in hot summer 1973. Here I had my 
absolute 'Hello' for electronic music, shortly 
before my twenty-sixth birthday. 

In the bare room with factory walls, cold 
colourful neon light tubes - which lay on the 
floor, corners to each wall - were switched on 
first. It was a world of haunting beauty and it 
grabbed me immediately. Then Ralf and 
Florian showed me their instruments. Among 
them were a Moog and an Arp synthesizer. 
The two of them had only had this device for a 
short time, and they had fun demonstrating it 
to me at full volume. | had a ‘Close Encounter 
Of The Third Kind’, like hearing music from 
another planet. Never before had | heard 
anything like it, and it would change my life as 
a musician immensely. Long story short, they 
had mein their power and | couldn't help but 
agree to be a permanent member of their 
group - my first good decision. 





Thisturned into 13 years, which were largely 
characterised by success and great trips to 


distant countries and cultures. 


[But post-1981 album 
Computer World], we were no 
more recording music, until 
1986 with Electric Café, which 
| found to be like ‘cold coffee". 
Thefounders had new 
interests. Bicycles were their 
new instruments. | became 
more and more frustrated 
about that situation, as did 
Karl [Bartos, percussion]. The 
last thing | did with them was 
films for Der Telefon Anruf 
[The Telephone Call, 1986 
single]. The album, formerly 
called Techno Pop, was 
delayed immensely. 

My interest in music-mak- 








ing with Kraftwerk was on a very low point 
and | went less and less into the studio, until 
по more. І did not resign as | never was their 
employee. Offers [to curate Kling Klang and 
be the “caretaker of the most famous sound 
laboratory in the world”] were abusive to 
me and led me to my Goodbye with the 
electric quartet. It was a rather sad situation 
because there was no longer any need for 
my haptic drumming. 

No longer interested in friendly contact, 
the founders opted for sequenced, automat- 
ed drum sounds and rigorously pursued their 
robotic style. For me, my decision to leave 
Kraftwerk after 13 years and pave my own 
musical path was the second good decision. 
Only this way could | invent my own songs 
and themes, as myself. | released my own 
albums - Time Pie (1997), Eloquence (2015) 
and now Magazine 1. 

In 2016 | met Florian - better, he met 
me! - by chance in a Düsseldorf brewery 
restaurant where celebrated a party with 
friends. Florian suddenly stood behind 
me and grabbed my shoulder. | stood up 
immediately, highly pleased to meet him. 
After 30 years we embraced each other 
the first time in our life. | thanked Flo for 
the wonderful years we had together. He 
answered: "These were the best Kraftwerk 
days, Wolfgang!” I’m grateful that the former 
flutist brought me into his band in 1973. 
Otherwise, | probably wouldn't have collided 
with modern music. The impact left its mark. 


Magazine 1 isreleased by Cherry Red on March 4. 
Wolfgang plays UK live dates from March. 


KRAFTWERK DERT 








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